World's First Solar Sail Photographed in Deep Space

This is pretty cool...

A tiny space camera has snapped amazing photos of the world's first solar sail spacecraft to voyage into deep space on an interplanetary mission for Japan.

The solar sail vehicle, named Ikaros, took the opportunity for a self-portrait by deploying a free-floating cylindrical camera just 2.4 inches (6 cm) in both width and height. In the photos, the Ikaros sail shines like a gleaming silver ship in a sea of black space.

The spring-launched camera snapped the new photos of the solar sail as the mission departs for Venus and beyond.

www.space.com...



www.lifeslittlemysteries.com...


Some extra info on solar sails here..

[edit on 19-6-2010 by baddmove]

[edit on 19-6-2010 by baddmove]

Very cool!

Go Japan, do it up!
We ain't tryin anything new, you guys can catch up in no time.
Just think of the awesome games they make, use that imagination in a space program, that's how you get man into deep space.

Great pic thanks for sharing.

reply to post by baddmove



Very cool. How big is the craft and is it now moving by solar wind or still momentum from launch/

I wonder what it's velocity is ?

reply to post by tarifa37


All i could find with my first cup of coffee was this so far..

compared to the 700-pound (315 kg) Ikaros.

Ikaros Will it fly too close to the sun and burn up, do we think

I thought solar sails were already in use. Too much tv, I suppose.

Looks like they got the idea from Eve-Online, a ship called the Zephyr.

Picture of spacecraft here

reply to post by baddmove




Thanks hope you enjoyed your coffee I'm now enjoying a cold carlsberg ( well it is Saturday night in the UK now) Its hard to tell by the pics how large this device is. I thought I read some time ago that these type of sail ships would have huge unfolded sails to capture the light.

Originally posted by tarifa37


Very cool. How big is the craft and is it now moving by solar wind or still momentum from launch/

I found this information about the small solar power sail demonstrator "IKAROS" on JAXA's website:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/42f0247cc746.jpg[/atsimg]

A Solar Sail gathers sunlight as propulsion by means of a large membrane while a Solar "Power" Sail gets electricity from thin film solar cells on the membrane in addition to acceleration by solar radiation. What's more, if the ion-propulsion engines with high specific impulse are driven by such solar cells, it can become a "hybrid" engine that is combined with photon acceleration to realize fuel-effective and flexible missions.

www.jaxa.jp...

And IKAROS should now be moving "by itself", since it was confirmed by June 10 that is was successfully expanded and generating power power through its solar cells.
www.jaxa.jp...

Also a BBC article here about IKAROS:
news.bbc.co.uk...

I think this is a very cool project! No need for fuel and rocket engines, lots of resources saved, and the lenght of missions could be expanded a great deal with this smart way of travelling through space.

reply to post by ziggystar60


Thanks for that, so its not small at 20m squared. I wonder how long it will take to reach the speed of light.

reply to post by ziggystar60


Thanks Ziggy..

good info there..

It has been Years and Years since they announced the solar sail it is so cool to see it ! Thank you !

Sunlight at Earth's orbit has the weight of a cigarette paper on an area the size of an acre (220X220 yards) so not much speed. I wont bother my son as regards working out the sail size for that weight. I would think it would be just too huge, and too heavy for a launch vehicle anyway.
Sunlight 'thrust' only works one way, away from the sun.

reply to post by the_denv


yea..it does kinda look JUST like that ship..

are they pulling our leg?

that is to much of a coincidence..

or could just be me..

now thats what im talkin about. the US spends millions thinking and developing. then asking for more money.
JAXA goes and tries it..

go get em JAXA..

reply to post by KATSUO


nasa tried to launch their solar sail about a year ago but the rocket blew up.

They have a backup sail which is ready theyre waiting for a launch slot.

Originally posted by KATSUO
now thats what im talkin about. the US spends millions thinking and developing. then asking for more money.
JAXA goes and tries it..

go get em JAXA..

I trust JAXA more than NASA because they have honor and won't deceiver others. Plus they are not cheap and always invent new things. Not like the Americans and use old technology and consider it "new".

reply to post by dragnet53


You're in for a rude shock then.

NASA and JAXA share an extremely close relationship.

Not the future of space flight but a very unique spacecraft, Ion propulsion is the future. Deep Space One the demonstater is now the fastest man made object created.

reply to post by baddmove


Yeah man, I think it does myself.

The wind sail may not be the exact same shape but its the exact same design. I think the Zephyr looks better though. Maybe its about time NASA/ESA started building space craft in space.



[edit on 25/6/2010 by the_denv]