Japan’s Hayabusa space probe has a ba-a-d attitude
Asteroid probe runs into trouble
BBC— Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, designed to collect a sample from an asteroid and return it to Earth, has lost the second of its three “reaction wheels”.
These wheels help the probe maintain its “attitude”, or orientation, in space without needlessly expending fuel by using thrusters to do the same job.….more….
…..In other words, this is a bad attitude, hee, hee. Although people are familiar with the name “Hayabusa” —the famous Japanese super-bike— Hayabusa actually means “falcon” in Japanese.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa space probe arrived at the Itokawa asteroid last month. The probe was supposed to send a robot the surface and collect 1 gram of dust and return the sample to Japan in June 2007. Now that seems unlikely. Meh.
See the earlier 3Yen report: Japan’s robot space invasion within 12 miles of asteroid
—The other “Hayabusa”
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