Last Working Engine of Hayabusa2 Asteroid Probe Breaks Down

Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--The only working ion engine on Japan's Hayabusa2 unmanned probe, which is on an extended mission to its new target asteroid after bringing samples from asteroid Ryugu to Earth in December 2020, has broken down, it was learned Thursday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, aims to continue the mission by employing usable parts of two other failed ion engines on Hayabusa2, the same technique as that used with the first Hayabusa spacecraft.

The government-affiliated space agency plans to restart the operation of the newly failed engine as early as in the second half of this month. It remains unclear at the moment, however, whether Hayabusa2 will be able to reach its new target, 1998 KY26, in 2031 as that depends on the degree of the probe's deterioration.

With nearly 12 years having passed since its December 2014 launch, Hayabusa2 has greatly exceeded its design life, resulting in damage to and deterioration of various parts and systems.

Of Hayabusa2's four ion engines, A, C and D had degraded substantially, so engine B, which had been preserved during its journey to and from Ryugu, has been mainly used on the extended mission. After the B engine broke down in mid-August, JAXA unsuccessfully attempted to fix it.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]