Outreach activities in the asteroid missions of Japan Hayabusa and Hayabusa2

Paper number

IAC-16,E1,6,6,x33938

Coauthor

Dr. Makoto Yoshikawa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan

Year

2016

Abstract

Hayabusa is the first asteroid sample return mission in the world, and Hayabusa2 is the second one. The purposes of these missions are to study the origin and evolution of the solar system and to develop the technologies that enable round-trip mission to asteroids. In addition to these "official" purposes, we have done many activities to enhance public interests in space. 

One of the successful activities was an emotional representation of Hayabusa mission. Spacecraft is a machine, so it does not have emotion. However, we described the mission of Hayabusa as if Hayabusa is a human. With a help of jazz music composed by a professional musician, the story of the mission becomes very emotional one. We were able to attract attention from the people who did not have interest in space missions. Thus this was successful to popularize the space activities to the people in Japan. Another example is the observation campaign of Hayabusa2 spacecraft when it approached to the Earth to perform the Earth swing-by. In this case, people who have a certain skill for star observation enjoyed the event by themselves, so this contributed science activities of public people. At the same time, we collaborated with public observatories in Japan to observe Hayabusa2, and people who do not have telescopes also could see Hayabusa spacecraft. These two are most noteworthy examples, and other than these we have done many things, such as the naming campaign of the target asteroid, putting people's names and messages on board, talk live show, and etc. 

These outreach activities have contributed to make public people have interests toward space and science. As a result, public people did some their own activities voluntarily. In this paper, we summarize what we have done for outreach activities in Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and what happened as a consequence.

Abstract document

IAC-16,E1,6,6,x33938.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-16,E1,6,6,x33938.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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