Hayabusa news

[mmcirvin]

Apparently Hayabusa managed to complete the practice descent that was cancelled earlier, and it released the Minerva mini-lander, but the lander missed the asteroid. It sounds as if it was a simple speed-of-light timing problem: the probe has to be semi-autonomous because there's no way to steer it in real time, but that means that its precise velocity is unpredictable at any given time. I suppose the software should have been smart enough to delay releasing Minerva under those conditions, but in any event, it sounds like an unlucky break.

Hayabusa itself will go ahead with the attempt at landing and collecting dust samples.