IKAROS

Spacecraft nº:

Japanese spacecraft nº: 164

Launch data: Designation  36577 / 10020E Launch date  20 May 2010 - 21:58 UT Launch site  Tanegashima, YLP-1 Launch vehicle  H-2A-202 Mission  Technology: Solar sail Solar orbit: Perigee / Apogee   km Eccentricity   Inclination   deg Period   min

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor  JAXA Platform  Solar sail Operator  JAXA Mass at launch  315 kg (+ sail: 13 kg) + 2 kg (4 tip mass) Dry Mass  290 kg Basic shape  Cylinder Dimension (m)  cyl: 1.6 dia, 0.8 high sail: 14 x 14, 20 dia, 0.0075 mm thick Equipment  Camera Solar array  none Stabilization  none DC power   Design lifetime

Mission details:

• Launch was by H-IIA 202 rocket, flight F17. F17 reached a 292 x 306 km x 30.0 deg low Earth orbit at 2210 UTC and deployed three cubesats: KSAT, Negai* and Waseda-Sat 2.
• F17's second stage restarted at 2220 UTC to accelerate to escape velocity. It cutoff at 2224 UTC, and then deployed three spacecraft into a 0.72 x 1.07 AU x 2.0 deg solar orbit: Akatsuki, Unitec-1 and Ikaros. Ikaros will test a solar sail; and Akatsuki will become a Venus-orbiting weather satellite with visible, infrared and ultraviolet cameras. The PAF900M adapter separating Akatsuki and Ikaros was jettisoned into solar orbit.
• Ikaros deployed its 20-meter solar sail between May 28 and Jun 11, 2010. On May 28,2010 four small tip masses were ejected from the four corners of the sail, and on Jun 14 the tiny DCAM-2 camera subsatellite was ejected to take pictures of the sail, as Ikaros coasted 9 million km from the Earth. The identical DCAM-1 was ejected on Jun 19.
  
  

  DCAM-1 subsatellite

  
  
• Each of the DCAMs featured a camera and was battery powered and had an operating time of 15 minutes.
• The Ikaros solar sail craft flew past Venus at 80000 km at 07:39 UTC on Dec 8, 2010.

External links:

• EOportal.org Satellite description