FOR millions of space rocks endlessly circling the sun, life is distinctly dull. Apart from the occasional jolt when a meteor hits, little has disturbed many of these asteroids since the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago. But one unsuspecting rock is in for a big surprise.
It's a tiny world roughly half a kilometre wide, and goes by the name of 25143 Itokawa. For the past five weeks, a pioneering Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa, aka peregrine falcon, has had it under close surveillance. As New Scientist went to press, Hayabusa was preparing, despite some serious problems with its guidance system, to perform a daring set of manoeuvres. If the mission team can keep everything on track, the spacecraft will drop a space-hopper onto the asteroid and fire bullets at it to break up the surface. As well as beaming back detailed snapshots, Hayabusa will bring some ...
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