Japan’s Asteroid Mission Could Get Lost in Space

The Japanese space agency’s attempt to collect dust from the surface of an asteroid is near failure as controllers at the Kagoshima Space Center in southwestern Japan struggle to regain control of a space probe and start it on its homeward journey.

Agency officials previously said that orbital dynamics required the craft to begin its return trip by today, but controllers now say they will not be able to start the probe’s ion engine before Wednesday.

Among the many problems facing the Hayabusa -- Japanese for falcon -- is the loss of two of the three gyroscopes that provide attitude control. Because the craft’s ion engine fires continuously throughout the flight, control of the spacecraft’s attitude is crucial to success.

Officials also said that the Hayabusa probe might have failed in its primary goal of collecting dust from Itokawa, an asteroid that orbits the sun about halfway between Earth and Mars. Although the craft touched down twice on the surface of the 2,300-foot-long, potato-shaped asteroid, it apparently failed to fire a small metal projectile designed to kick up dust so instruments could collect samples.

Seiji Oyama of the space agency said researchers hoped that the landing itself stirred up enough dust for collection. “We just won’t know until Hayabusa comes back to Earth and we open it up,” he said at a news conference this week.

The asteroid, named for the father of the Japanese space program, Hideo Itokawa, is about 180 million miles from Earth. The probe is about 600 miles away from the asteroid, drifting at a speed of about 3 mph.

If controllers can get the engine started and work out a change in flight path, the craft would be expected to land in Australia in June 2007.

Associated Press was used in compiling this report.