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The Japanese, for the first time, have managed to hunt one of the asteroids in the outer space. They endeavour to pull it to the earth to conduct researches upon it and decipher the scientific secrets of asteroids. It is expected that Japanese space probe "Hiaboza" will come back to earth in 2010, to land in Australia, with such an asteroid to be transported to special labs in Japan to be studied.
A Japanese astronaut in charge of the project expressed his worry about the possibility of the probe failure to return due to its low-powered engine. He said:" we are not optimistic about the probe's return to earth, but we are not pessimistic too".
The ionic engines activating the probe and directing it towards the space are operated via launching a Microwave for the purpose of ionizing Xenon gas and speeding up plasma, the matter that creates relative high driving force suitable in space among planets.
Engineers in charge of operating probe will be reassured by deliberately stopping the engine for several months in order to exploit the energy when the probe comes closer to the earth.
Hiaboza was launched into space in 2003 and it has been operated there for 31000 hours, deriving its energy from an ionic engine. Hiaboza is supposed to be driven by this engine for 8000 hours more to reach the earth.
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