AOSHIMA HAYABUSA SPACEPROBE BACK ON SALE

Mat Irvine reports
Recently I looked at the Aoshima 1:32 scale Hayabusa spaceprobe kit, but had to add the rider that as soon as it was issued, it appeared to have been withdrawn. This was a great shame for, as I said then, conventional injection kits of satellites and spaceprobes - as against rockets and manned spaceflight - were extremely few and far between.

Hayabusa in the shops
But it’s now it's back, as reported by Hobby Link Japan, the company that had kindly supplied the sample kit. So for those of you who missed it first time around, you now have a second chance to experience this detailed kit, from the neatly-engraved solar panels and sensors to the thruster engines and antenna dish.

Interesting stand
The asteroid-shaped stand is a bonus too, with the tiny Minerva sub-satellite shown landed on the surface, though this was an event which did not succeed on the mission itself. The stand's shape echoes that of Hayabusa’s target, asteroid Itokawa, a chunk of space rock some 535 m (1755 ft) long.

I built the kit  ‘straight out of the box’, and the pictures show it with just paint, and I covered the bus (the main body of the craft) in gold foil to represent the protective thermal blankets/micro-meteorite coverings. The iridescent look of the panels was achieved by spraying translucent House of Kolor Tru-blue pearl over a bottom coat of silver. It’s a type of paint really intended for painting model cars, but works well for this purpose. The probe's high-gain antenna looks good overall, although the limits of injection moulding mean the real appearance, which is actually a mesh, can only be approximated in this scale.

You can buy Hayabusa from Hobby Link Japan, who supplied the kit used in my build. The HLJ site is here where you can also see a video that shows the probe's meteoric re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Other space models, both fact and fiction, are available here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  General view of the Aoshima Hayabusa assembled kit.
2  Solar panels are neatly engraved.
3  High-gain antenna is positioned atop the spacecraft bus section.
4  Peanut-shaped stand with nameplate.
5  Itokawa for real, snapped by Hayabusa on close approach. Picture courtesy the Japanese Space Agency JAXA.

SPACE MODELLERS FORM A LINE HERE - AND NAME IT ‘F’ FOR FRUSTRATION

Mat Irvine reports
Just over two months ago, on June 13, 2010, the Japanese spaceprobe Hayabusa (original name MUSES-C) returned a small sample container back to Earth. Having spent seven years in space - three more than planned - Hayabusa had finally completed its unique task, to rendezvous with the asteroid Itokawa, hover there, grab a soil sample and return it to Earth.

Hayabusa mission doubts
The spaceprobe appears to have done most of these tasks, though there is still some doubt as to whether the return samples (the container landed in the Australian outback, near Woomera) are actually from the asteroid. However, overall it was still an amazing mission.

Hayabusa model kit
Also rather amazing is the fact that the Hayabusa mission inspired Aoshima to make a kit, even more so as this is only the fifth (that’s right - number five) unmanned spacecraft ever to have been made as a conventional plastic kit! I do have to add the rider that there have been a number of other non-plastic kits, made from resin, card, and photo-etched metal.

Made to 1:32 scale, the Aoshima kit includes a wealth of full-size probe detail, from the central bus, twin solar panels and ion engine to the high-gain antenna dish. You get a stand in the shape of the very oddly shaped asteroid Itokawa, and also included is the tiny - very tiny - sub-probe Minerva that was suppose to land on Itokawa, though sad to say, this part of the mission failed. Minerva could almost be made as a 1:1 scale kit - it was just 100 mm (3.94 in) tall, and 120 mm (4.72 in) in diameter!

Hayabusa kit cancelled.
But perhaps the oddest thing about the kit is that Aoshima proudly states on the box ‘Space Craft Series 1’ - indicating more to follow - yet almost immediately discontinued the kit! Aoshima usually reintroduces its models at a later date though, so let’s hope it happens in this case.

It’s frustrating, but some kits may still be available. The Hayabusa featured in my pictures above was kindly supplied by Hobby Link Japan, so it’s worth having a look here, where you can also see a video and model shots.

Other space models, both fact and fiction, are available here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  Box top also shows the older MUSES-C name, derived from Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C. Incidentally, Hayabusa is Japanese for Peregrine Falcon, and is also the name for the superfast and highly desirable Suzuki motorbike.
2  Photos of the built model on the side of the box.
3  The parts: note the peanut-shaped stand, representing the oddly-shaped asteroid Itokawa.
4  CGI rendering of Hayabusa in hover mode above the asteroid surface.