THE beleaguered space probe , aka peregrine falcon, has struggled to live up to its name. Only some nifty space engineering has put the craft back on course for Earth.
In 2005, Hayabusa landed twice on the asteroid Itokawa but failed to dislodge any material for collection. It then spun temporarily out of control. Eventually, engineers managed to set it on a path for home. But the going was slow as only one of its four ion engines was working.
Now, the mission team has cobbled together another engine using parts from two sick ones, the (JAXA) announced on Thursday.
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One of Hayabusa鈥檚 sick engines can still spit out positive ions for thrust, but it can no longer squirt out electrons to stop the build-up of electric charge on the spacecraft. The team got around this problem by getting a second sick engine to spit out the electrons.
Now that Hayabusa has two effective ion engines, it is back on track to return to Earth in June 2010, as planned, JAXA says. If all goes well, it will drop its sample capsule in the Australian outback.
杏吧原创s are eager to see if some loose bits of asteroid entered the collection chamber during the landings, but Hayabusa鈥檚 project manager, Jun鈥檌chiro Kawaguchi, warns that the cobbled-together engine may not last. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very new configuration for us,鈥� he says.