IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japanese interplanetary spacecraft that was successfully launched on 21 May 2010 aboard an H-IIA rocket by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Its mission is to demonstrate solar-sail technology in interplanetary space.[1][2]
Purpose
The IKAROS probe is the world's first spacecraft to use solar sailing as the main propulsion. It plans to demonstrate four key technologies:
Deployment and control of a large, thin solar sail membrane
Thin-film solar cells integrated into the sail to power the payload
Measurement of acceleration due to radiation pressure on the solar sail
Attitude control via variable reflectance panels
The sail finished deploying on June 10, and is currently being tested. The final two items will be tested during the remaining six month trip to Venus.
Investigations of aspects of interplanetary space, such as the solar wind and cosmic dust, are also part of the mission.
Design
The square sail, deployed via a spinning motion, is 20 m (66 ft) on the diagonal and is made of a 7.5-micrometre (0.30-mil) thick sheet of polyimide. A thin-film solar array is embedded in the sail. Eight LCD panels are embedded in the sail, whose reflectance can be adjusted for attitude control. The sail also contains eight dust counters as part of the science payload.[3][4] IKAROS unfurled its sail on June 11, 2010, and will spend six months traveling to Venus, and then will begin a three-year journey to the far side of the Sun.[5]
Future
If successful, IKAROS is to be followed by a 50 m (160 ft) sail, intended to journey to Jupiter, later in the decade.
References
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Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
