3 ms·
First attempt? http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/ikaros/index.shtml http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/ikaros/index.shtml IKAROS, launched by J
by david-given 11y ago
First attempt?
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/ikaros/index.shtml http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/ikaros/index.shtml
IKAROS, launched by JAXA in 2010, passed Venus six months later in is still accelerating (slowly; it's getting about 1mN of thrust). It's even steerable, by using LCD panels in the sails to change the albedo. It was last contacted early this year. IKAROS' sail is 20m diagonal, which makes it considerably larger than LightSail1.
There are even pictures of it --- it ejected a camera after deployment.
http://www.space.com/25800-ikaros-solar-sail.html http://www.space.com/25800-ikaros-solar-sail.html
- devindotcom 11y agototally forgot about ikaros. you're completely right, of course. Lightsail is a smaller, cheaper, privately (and crowd) funded solar sail project.
- fapjacks 11y agoHow long ago was Ikaros designed? I've been a member of the Planetary Society since I was a child and this has been talked about since at least the early 90s, iirc. This has been a major goal of the Planetary Society for years and years and years, finally overcoming the setbacks with a successful crowdfund. I don't doubt Ikaros may have been conceived much earlier, considering how spacecraft design takes time.