Flight status of IKAROS deep space solar sail demonstrator

JAXA launched the world's first deep space solar sail demonstration spacecraft “IKAROS” on May 21, 2010. IKAROS was injected to an Earth–Venus trajectory to demonstrate several key technologies for solar sail utilizing the deep space flight environment. IKAROS succeeded in deploying a 20 m-span solar sail on June 9, and is now flying towards the Venus with the assist of solar photon acceleration. This paper describes the mission design, system design, solar sail deployment operation and current flight status of IKAROS.

► JAXA launched the world's first deep space solar sail demonstration spacecraft “IKAROS” on May 21, 2010.
► IKAROS was injected to an Earth–Venus trajectory to demonstrate several key technologies for solar sail utilizing the deep space flight environment.
► IKAROS succeeded in deploying a 20 m-span solar sail on June 9, and is now flying towards the Venus with the assist of solar photon propulsion.
► This paper describes the mission design, system design, solar sail deployment operation and current flight status of IKAROS.