MUSES-C Launched 13
Anonymous Coward writes "If all goes well, Japans MUSES-C asteroid probe will be bringing back samples from an asteroid in less than five years. Launched friday afternoon at 1:29 pm (local time) the probe should reach its target in June of 2005. The MUSES-C probe will collect surface samples of asteroid 1998SF36 totaling 1 gram, including sand and stone fragments, two years later before returning to the Earth in June 2007, researchers said."
Re:How will they retrieve the samples? (Score:3, Informative)
-molo
Re:How will they retrieve the samples? (Score:3, Informative)
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc011698.html
Excerpt: Muses-C spacecraft will also fire explosive charges into the asteroid, collect the samples that are ejected from the impacts, and return the samples to Earth in a capsule for
laboratory analysis
and this:
http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/science/lunapla.
In this mission, the spacecraft will land on the asteroid surface, sample the surface rocks/soils and encapsulate them into a container. We will recover the samples carried by the entry capsule which will provide us with many findings of primitive bodies in the solar system.
-robSlimo
Re:1 gram? (Score:1, Informative)