Itokawa in natural colors

This is the composite color image of Itokawa taken at September 12, 2005. This image composed of three images with different filters as red, green and blue. The irregular shape of this body is clearly seen and Hayabusa science observations started.

Hayabusa will approach Itokawa at a distance of 0,3 BKM from Earth. At this distance, even light takes about 17' to travel, so if Hayabusa needed an emergency instruction from Earth, it would not reach the probe in time. Therefore, Hayabusa is designed to pilot itself: to use the on-board camera and laser to read the asteroid's geography and judge when to approach it and where to land.

The exploration of small Solar System Bodies will contribute to improve our understanding of the Earth itself and it will also ead us to a more comprehensive interpretation of the constituents and potential resources that these celestial objects may have.