JAXA / JSPEC
IKAROS Update... According to a blog posted by The Planetary Society today, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) IKAROS solar sail finally completed its primary mission that started last May and culminated with a flyby of Venus last month. Shown above is a self-portrait of IKAROS, with Venus in the background, that was taken on December 8, 2010 (Japan Standard Time)...the day the solar sail flew within 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) of the greenhouse planet.
According to IKAROS’ mission blog (whose text is in Japanese... It can be translated using Google), the solar sail is currently 77 million miles from the Sun, 77 million miles from the Earth and now 10 million miles from Venus. Since it relies on centrifugal force to keep its sail fully deployed at all times, IKAROS is currently rotating at 2.1 revolutions per minute. That is all.
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