Physics
Today: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency yesterday
launched two scientific spacecraft aboard a single H-IIA
rocket.
The 640-kg
Akatsuki
("daybreak") is now on its way to a rendezvous with Venus
in late December or early January. From its orbit around the
planet, the spacecraft's suite of instruments will study
lightning, volcanism, and other active Venusian processes. The
objective of the rocket's other payload, the 300-kg
IKAROS
(Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the
Sun), is to assess the feasibility of propelling spacecraft
solely with solar energy. In a few weeks' time,
IKAROS (depicted at right) will unfurl a 14 × 14 m
2 sail that will harvest the momentum of solar
photons. Embedded in the sail are thin solar cells that will
power the spacecraft's electronics and drive a second means of
locomotion and maneuver: an ion propulsion engine.
The 640-kg
Akatsuki
("daybreak") is now on its way to a rendezvous with Venus
in late December or early January. From its orbit around the
planet, the spacecraft's suite of instruments will study
lightning, volcanism, and other active Venusian processes. The
objective of the rocket's other payload, the 300-kg
IKAROS
(Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the
Sun), is to assess the feasibility of propelling spacecraft
solely with solar energy. In a few weeks' time,
IKAROS (depicted at right) will unfurl a 14 × 14 m
2 sail that will harvest the momentum of solar
photons. Embedded in the sail are thin solar cells that will
power the spacecraft's electronics and drive a second means of
locomotion and maneuver: an ion propulsion engine.
