Scientific and Engineering Importance of The Mission
Scientists' current understanding of asteroids depends greatly on meteorite samples, but it is very difficult to match up meteorite samples with the exact asteroids from which they came. Hayabusa would solve this problem by bringing back pristine samples from a specific, well-characterized asteroid. Accordingly, Hayabusa "will bridge the gap between ground observation data of asteroids and laboratory analysis of meteorite and cosmic dust collections," says mission scientist Hajime Yano. Also in comparing the data from the onboard instruments of the Hayabusa with the data from the NEAR Shoemaker mission will put the knowledge on a wider level.
The Hayabusa mission has a very deep engineering importance for JAXA, too. It allows JAXA to further test its technologies in the fields of ion engines, autonomous and optical navigation, deep space communication, and close movement on objects with low gravity among others. Second, since it was the first-ever preplanned soft contact with the surface of an asteroid (the NEAR Shoemaker landing on 433 Eros was not preplanned) it has enormous influence on further asteroid missions.
Read more about this topic: Hayabusa
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