IKAROS

Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS) is a project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to test fly a 20-m solar sail with integrated thin-film photovoltaics as a secondary payload of their Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) mission. IKAROS launched May 20, 2010, at 21:58 UTC, and has started the verification experiment stage of the mission. Deployment of the sail June 3-10, 2010, was successful. IKAROS then demonstrated by accelerating with solar pressure and steering with solar torque. IKAROS flew past Venus on December 8, 2010, at a distance of 80,800km and continues to sail in orbit around the sun. Morietal2009:Sakamotoetal2009:Yamazakietal2009:Shirasawaetal2009:Funaseetal2009:Yamaguchietal2009:Houetal2009:Sawadaetal2009:Mimasuetal2009

Links

 * JAXA IKAROS Mission Page
 * IKAROS Blog (Japanese) and Google translation to English
 * IKAROS Channel (Japanese) and English
 * YouTube video overview of IKAROS (Japanese)
 * IKAROS countdown page
 * JAXA IKAROS Project page
 * Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" countdown page
 * JAXA IKAROS press release (in Japanese)
 * Crunch Gear article
 * 27th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science program
 * Spaceflight Now: Two solar sailing trials readied for launch next year