IKAROS
A 1:64 scale model of the IKAROS spacecraft
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| Operator | JAXA |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 2010-020E |
| Website | JAXA page |
| Mission duration | ~0.5 years elapsed: 6 years, 10 months and 5 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 315 kg (694 lb) |
| Dimensions | Solar sail: 14 m × 14 m (46 ft × 46 ft) (area: 196 m2 (2,110 sq ft)) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 21:58:22, 20 May 2010 |
| Rocket | H-IIA 202 |
| Launch site | Tanegashima Space Center, LA-Y |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Heliocentric orbit |
| Flyby of Venus | |
| Closest approach | 8 December 2010 |
IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) experimental spacecraft. The spacecraft was launched on 21 May 2010, aboard an H-IIA rocket, together with the Akatsuki (Venus Climate Orbiter) probe and four other small spacecraft. IKAROS is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in interplanetary space.
On 8 December 2010, IKAROS passed by Venus at about 80,800 km (50,200 mi) distance, completing the planned mission successfully, and entered its extended operation phase.
The IKAROS probe is the world's first spacecraft to use solar sailing as the main propulsion. It was designed to demonstrate four key technologies (comments in parentheses refer to figure):
The mission also includes investigations of aspects of interplanetary space, such as gamma-ray bursts, solar wind and cosmic dust.
The probe's ALADDIN instrument (ALDN-S and ALDN-E) measured the variation in dust density while its Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter (GAP) measured the polarization of gamma-ray bursts during its six-month cruise.
IKAROS is to be followed by a 50 m (160 ft) sail, intended to journey to Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids, later in the decade, with a stated goal of returning an asteroid sample to Earth in the 2050s.
The square sail, deployed via a spinning motion using 0.5-kilogram (1.1 lb) tip masses (key item 1 in figure at right), is 20 m (66 ft) on the diagonal and is made of a 7.5-micrometre (0.00030 in) thick sheet of polyimide (key item 3 in figure at right). The polyimide sheet had a mass of about 10 grams per square metre, resulting in a total sail mass of 2 kilograms, excluding tip masses, attached panels and tethers. A thin-film solar array is embedded in the sail (key item 4 in figure at right). PowerFilm, Inc. provided the thin-film solar array. Eighty blocks of LCD panels are embedded in the sail, whose reflectance can be adjusted for attitude control (key item 2 in figure at right). The sail also contains eight dust counters on the opposite face as part of the science payload.
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