national

Asteroid-blast space cannon on track, say scientists

9 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2013 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
Login to comment

Asteroids was my favorite Atari game !!!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I sincerely hope this next attempt is more successful that the previous Hayabusa spacecraft. Japan's media have made an obvious and concerted effort to cover up what was a nearly complete failure of the first spacecraft to achieve almost all of its main mission objectives. They even coaxed Watanabe into making a movie about it in order to whitewash the debacle with an overcoat of pseudo-credibility and importance. The first Hayabusa was a cracked egg even before it got off the ground. Better luck with this one.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Do not see that NEW George Clooney & Sandra Bullock movie.

It's crap !!

Don't watch such crap !!!!

Why make the asteroid angry ? What did the asteroid do to us ?

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

If asteroids had the feeling, they would not hit the earth and wiped out all dinosaurs thus most life forms would be different than today. Go Japan, maybe one day we can make a new colony on the asteroid and leaving the earth to China (as they always claim according to their nonsense ancient history?) just before the sun is going to explode and turning the earth to nothingness. Also, Japan can mine the asteroid for rare earth materials and other precious mineral. What to do with all these fictional money? That is one reason "the deficit" is not a matter for some folks!!!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@shinhiyata ... "The first Hayabusa was a cracked egg even before it got off the ground"

Numerous problems occurred yet they could be overcome enough so that Hayabusa arrived at an asteroid, picked up dust particles, and came back to earth with them, or world first.

The Hayabusa project is the world's first implementation of microwave discharge ion engines

The budget was a mere 250 million dollars; the scientists and engineers involved used it well to complete a difficult target.

All the lessons learned during Hayabusa I's journey helped to develop Hayabusa II. Build, test, think; build, test, think, ad infinum, ... that's what we're supposed to do as humans ... a failure is only absolute when one gives up trying.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Craig - not sure what scientific journals you're reading but ... NASA's Deep Space 1 used a slightly different design ion thruster and was launched 5 YEARS BEFORE Hayabusa. 3 out of 4 of Hayabusa's 'implemented' engines failed, and it was barely able to return to Earth. The ESA SMART 1, launched just a few weeks later, used a Hall Effect ion engine that worked flawlessly and accomplished far more science at a cost of only 170 million dollars. The Hayabusa had so many problems that it arrived at a different asteroid than was first planned, spent months less on target, crashed into the target asteroid instead of soft landing, collected only 100 microparticles, and then crashed on return to Earth. The particle container was compromised and the meager contents couldn't even be positively certified to be from the asteroid. The main mission objective - the Minerva lander - was a total loss and flew off into space. Your rationale is like saying that the Fukushima meltdown will help us to better clean up the next nuclear disaster.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Why? Because we don't want one large dangerous asteroid hitting earth... we would rather have 1000 smaller pieces causing slow death damage rather than one large massive get it over with piece!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cannon? Sounds more like a robot craft armed with a bomb..

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites