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Orbital Elements

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Aphelion ! ! ! Perihelion ! ! ! Semi-major axis ! ! Eccentricity ! ! ! Orbital period ! ! ! Average orbital"speed ! ! Mean anomaly !! ! Inclination ! ! ! Longitude"of ascending"node ! Argument of perihelion ! ! Synodic period! ! ! Hyperbolic excess velocity:! Insolation at perihelion:! ! Insolation at apohelion:! !

1.695 AU (253.520 Gm) 0.953 AU (142.568 Gm) 1.324 AU (198.044 Gm) 0.280 1.52 a (556.355 d) 25.37"km/s 294.502 1.622 69.095 162.760 2.92 a (1063.54 d) 3,453 m/sec 1,508.4 W/m2 476.8 W/m2

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Physical Characteristics

25143 Itokawa

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Dimensions ! ! ! Mass ! ! ! ! Mean density ! ! ! Equatorial surface"gravity ! Escape velocity ! ! Rotation period !! ! Albedo !! ! ! Temperature ! ! ! Spectral type ! ! ! Absolute magnitude (H) !

535 # 294 # 209 m (3.510.105)#1010 kg, (3.580.18)#1010 kg 1.9 0.13 g/cm$, ! 1.95 0.14 g/cm$ ~0.0001 m/s% ~0.0002 km/s! 0.5055 d (12.132 h) Hayabusa 0.53 Landing ~206 K Stony 19.2

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Chemical Characteristics

25143 Itokawa Grain B

25143 Itokawa Grain C

25143 Itokawa Grain A

25143 Itokawa Grain E

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Hayabusa Return Capsule

In 2005, the Japanese probe Hayabusa made its rendezvous with Itowaka, a ve-hundred-meter long asteroid whose circular orbit intersects that of Earth. After a difcult mission plagued with problems, the probe&s specimen return capsule landed safely in the Woomera area of Australia in 2010. Japan&s Aerospace Exploration Agency announced that the capsule contained some one hundred particles from Itowakathe rst material gathered from an asteroid and delivered to Earth.

Hayabusa Main Bus Disintegrates upon re-entry leaving return capsule in tact.

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Analysis of Returned Objects

SiO2 38.41 TiO2 0.74 Al2O3 1.03 Cr2O3 0.79 FeO 23.99 NiO 2.04 MnO 0.95 MgO 27.85 CaO 1.23 Na2O 0.58 K2O 0.52 P2O5 0.87 SO3 Total 1.00 100.00

Major Elements
Element
Oxygen Iron Silicon Magnesium Nickel Calcium Manganese Aluminum Chromium Titanium Sodium Potassium Sulfur Phosphorus Total

%wt
40.897 18.650 17.925 16.794 0.954 0.878 0.733 0.545 0.543 0.441 0.434 0.428 0.400 0.378 100.000

tonnes
14,354,742 6,545,975 6,291,675 5,894,834 334,924 308,199 257,381 191,288 190,523 154,749 152,197 150,365 140,561 132,646 35,100,060

Thirty ve million tons of raw material on an orbit that crosses both Mars orbit and Earth&s orbit. Itokawa passes Earth every 2.92 years. The asteroid passes Mars every 4.26 years. This is an ideal transfer vehicle and resource for space operations between these two worlds, or in the space surrounding each. An automated satellite using sunlight and receiving instructions from Earth provides quartz and metal parts and nished goods as well as silicon based electronics useful for a wide variety of space operations today. So, parts for a space station could be placed into Earth orbit via aerobraking far more efciently than launching them from the moon or Earth. Components for a Mars colony or space colonies are also possible. There are enough metals and quartz along with oxygen to build a space colony to support 2,000,000 people. The asteroid likely will never see that many people since it has signicant shortage of water, carbon and materials to support life. A colony of 10,000 to 100,000 people is possible and more than sufcient to supply iron, nickel, titanium, quartz, silicon, oxygen, and other goods to operations in Earth orbit, on Luna, Diemos, Phobos, and Mars, supporting up to 2,000,000 people in space around these worlds. This would also be an ideal test site for developing self-replicating machine technologies built from the initial surface processor. Rare earths and other rare materials are not yet characterized. This is an LL type Chondrite. So, abundances for this type asteroid can only be assumed at this time. The following chart was prepared on that basis.

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Rare Earth Elements

Element
Y La Ce Pr Nd Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Tm Yb Lu TOTAL

ppm
1.570 0.237 0.613 0.093 0.457 0.148 0.056 0.199 0.036 0.246 0.055 0.025 0.161 0.025 3.920

kilograms
55,107 8,319 21,516 3,257 16,041 5,195 1,976 6,985 1,267 8,635 1,916 867 5,651 863 137,596

Boosting the speed at perihelion by 1,636.4 m/sec raises apohelion from 1.695 AU to 2.222 AU and increases the period from 1.52 years to 2.00 years. Thus, returning to Earth every 2.00 years instead of every 2.92 years. Space Colonies built from metals imported from Itokawa

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