The Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005 after the powered flight in the deep space by the μl0 cathode‐less electron cyclotron resonance ion engines. Though the spacecraft was seriously damaged after the successful soft‐landing and lift‐off, the xenon cold gas jets from the ion engines rescued it. New attitude stabilization method using a single reaction wheel, the ion beam jets, and the photon pressure was established and enabled the homeward journey from April 2007 aiming the Earth return on 2010. The total accumulated operational time of the ion engines reaches 31,400 hours at the end of 2007. One of four thrusters achieved 13,400‐hour space operation.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Microwave Discharge Ion Engines onboard Hayabusa Asteroid Explorer


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    BEAMED ENERGY PROPULSION: Fifth International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion ; 2007 ; Kailua‐Kona (Hawaii)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 997 , 1 ; 572-581


    Publication date :

    2008-04-28


    Size :

    10 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Microwave Discharge Ion Engines Onboard Hayabusa Asteroid Explorer

    Kuninaka, H. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008


    LIDAR onboard Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa

    Tsuno, K. / European Space Agency / Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006


    Flight Status of Cathode-Less Microwave Discharge Ion Engines Onboard HAYABUSA Asteroid Explorer

    Kuninaka, Hitoshi / Nishiyama, Kazutaka / Shimizu, Yukio et al. | AIAA | 2004


    Cathode-less Microwave Discharge Ion Engines Space-Qualified onboard "HAYABUSA" Explorer

    Kuninaka, H. / Nishiyama, K. / Shimizu, Y. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004


    Powered Flight of Cathode-less Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Engines onboard HAYABUSA Asteroid Explorer

    Kuninaka, H. / Funaki, I. / Nishiyama, K. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006