Japan Successfully Launches First Solar-Powered Spacecraft

Early this morning, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched Akatsuki, the world’s first meteorological satellite that will study the super-rotation and cloud-covering surfaces of Venus.

Attached to Akatsuki is Ikaros (Interplanetary Kite-craft, Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), which will travel for three years to the other side of the sun.

MSNBC reports:

“Ikaros is designed to rely only upon the pressure of sunlight to push it along, but it also carries thin-film, electricity-generating solar cells embedded within its kitelike frame. Such a design might allow future spacecraft to draw electricity for ion-propulsion engines, even as they also use the solar sail for backup — not unlike a sailing boat that also uses a solar-powered engine.”

JAXA  | Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

[via MSNBC]