Hayabusa is an engineering spacecraft developed to prove that planets can be investigated.
The purpose of the Hayabusa project is to establish a technology to enable a sample collected from the asteroid Itokawa to be brought back to Earth. Mission profile of the asteroid probe Hayabusa (links to ISAS website)

Asteroids, which are mainly between Mercury and Jupiter, are celestial bodies that are like fossils in that they contain a relatively good record of a planet as it was at the time of its birth. By returning with a sample from Itokawa, an asteroid that is approaching Earth, we can obtain clues to help us answer questions such as the following: What sorts of materials are planets and asteroids made of ? What sorts of elements made up the solar system when planets were born? The answers will help us understand Earth.Hayabusa project: What is an asteroid? Why is Hayabusa traveling to an asteroid? (links to ISAS website)

Hayabusa is the world's first asteroid probe whose mission is to return a sample from the surface of a celestial body further away than the Moon to Earth.
It accomplishes many feats, including continuously running ion engines and using such engines during an Earth swing-by.Asteroid Explorer Information about HAYABUSA (links to ISAS website)

Ion engine refers to an electric propulsion engine that ionizes xenon gas and uses an electrical acceleration system. Due to its super high efficiency, this technology is also expected to be important for future investigation of moons and planets.Hayabusa's Return Journey to Earth: The Potential of Ion Engines (links to JAXA website)

For more than one year after being launched, Hayabusa orbited around the Sun, using its ion engine to continuously accelerate, and then, when it again approached Earth, an Earth swing-by was performed to further accelerate the probe towards the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa was the first spacecraft in the world to combine acceleration using an ion engine with an Earth swing-by.

Because Itokawa is so far away that it takes almost 40 minutes for even radio waves to travel to the asteroid and back, there was previously no accurate information even about the asteroid's shape. Therefore, Hayabusa used camera imaging and a laser altimeter to determine the distance from and shape of Itokawa, and then the probe used this data to automatically determine what to do. In this way, Hayabusa approached Itokawa on its own and made various observations of the asteroid as it hovered over the asteroid along the asteroid's orbit.

Hayabusa is equipped with a number of observation devices. These devices include AMICA (Asteroid Multiband Imaging CAmera), a spectrographic camera with a color filter used to obtain color photographs of the asteroid; LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging instrument), a laser altimeter used to measure the surface shape; NIRS (Near-InfraRed Spectrometer), a near-infrared spectrometer used to determine which sorts of minerals exist on the surface of the asteroid; and XRS (X-Ray fluorescent Spectrometer), a fluorescent X-ray spectrometer used to study the elemental profile of the surface.Hayabusa's Return Journey to Earth: The Team's Passion Drives the Project (links to JAXA website)Hayabusa's Return Journey to Earth: To See Fragments of an Asteroid (links to JAXA website)

As Hayabusa got close to the asteroid Itokawa, it dropped a sphere that had a diameter of approximately 10 cm (a target marker). The reflective sheet attached to this marker glittered brightly as the light flashed by Hayabusa struck it. Hayabusa used the reflected light as a guide to automatically navigate towards and then touch down on Itokawa.Hayabusa's Return Journey to Earth: With the Hopes of 880,000 People (links to JAXA website)

Due to Itokawa's weak gravitational pull, Hayabusa was not built to stably sit on the asteroid's surface. The probe was supposed use a target marker to touch down on Itokawa, and then use equipment called a sampling horn to collect a surface sample.
Collection was supposed to be accomplished by shooting a metal pellet that weighs several grams into Itokawa's surface and collecting the particles that flew up as a result the instant the probe touched the asteroid.Hayabusa's Return Journey to Earth: High Hopes for Successful Sample Collection (links to JAXA website)

Hayabusa re-entered the atmosphere at 13:51 p.m. on June 13th, 2010 (UTC). The capsule that separated from Hayabusa was retrieved in the Woomera prohibited area in Australia. (Updated on July 30th, 2010)
Asteroid Explorer "HAYABUSA" (MUSES-C) Reentry (links to JAXA website)

It is possible to see an actual-size model of Hayabusa at the Sagamihara campus of JAXA. In addition to Hayabusa, there are also various other ISAS models of historical importance on display. (No reservation is required.)Sagamihara campus tour information (links to JAXA website)

Under the direction of JAXA, NEC has been deeply involved in the development, manufacturing, testing, and operations of the total system for the Hayabusa project.NEC space solutions: Asteroid probe Hayabusa MUSES-C