AstronautAtlas
Learn the story of spaceflightLoading AstronautAtlas records
AstronautAtlas
Learn the story of spaceflightLoading AstronautAtlas records
Space programs and missions · A guided course
Following asteroid material from space to the laboratory
Explore why Japan’s asteroid sample-return missions needed careful navigation, clean handling and disciplined interpretation as much as a successful return.
Suggested preparation is listed in the course · Start whenever you’re ready
Scientists in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center study samples retrieved by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft and returned to Earth in late 2020. JAXA shared a portion of the samples with NASA, and in exchange, NASA will provide JAXA a percentage of a sample of asteroid Bennu, when the agency’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returns to Earth from the space rock in 2023. Photo Date: November 30, 2021. Location: Bldg. 31, H2 Clean Room. Photographer: Robert Markowitz Display image resized and compressed.
NASA / Robert Markowitz · Image sourceYour place in the bigger picture
Build on familiar ideas, then choose a direction to explore next. Every course remains open.
Connect a small world, a streak of light, and a laboratory sample.
From a scientific question to evidence that the design works
Hayabusa and Hayabusa2
Following asteroid material from space to the laboratory
Start whenever you’re ready. Preparation is suggested, and every course stays open.
No follow-on course currently lists this one as preparation. Explore another subject or revisit an idea that caught your interest.
Browse all courses →One suggested order from the foundations to Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. Shared starting points appear once; skip anything you already know.
Then: Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 →
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