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Hayabusa’s ion engine team wins Best Paper Award in International Electric Propulsion Conference

Electric Rocket Propulsion Society (ERPS) honored the ion engine team of Hayabusa project with the Best Paper Award to the technical paper "Asteroid Rendezvous of HAYABUSA Explorer Using Microwave Discharge Ion Engines" (IEPC-2005-10) presented at International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC) in 2005.

The researchers and engineers in the world have improved themselves on the electric propulsion through friendly rivalry. Around 2000, various types of the electric propulsion such as NSTAR ion engine on Deep Space 1, PPS1350 Hall thruster on SMART-1 and μ10 microwave discharge ion engines on Hayabusa pioneered the deep space powered flight one after another. This means a sound growth of the electric propulsion technology under the guidance of ERPS. The microwave discharge ion engines μ10 feature cathode-less plasma generations, accompanied by long-life and high-reliability, and made Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvous with the asteroid Itokawa.

We have the pleasure to receive the Best Paper Award in IEPC from ERPS as well as the Best Paper Award from AIAA in July 2007 and the Technology Award from the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences in 2004.The electric propulsion will expand the human intelligence into the solar system and beyond.

Hitoshi Kuninaka

September 25, 2007