24 July 2019
LightSail 2 unfurls its sails and soars through space
.... Also cruising through space right now, perhaps, is the Japanese space agency’s experimental solar ‘Yacht’ called Ikaros. Launched in 2010, the craft was able to travel past Venus via nothing more than the momentum...
January 2017
New oceans beckon for solar sail technology
... the distance. Figure 1 - The Japanese Space Agency’s IKAROS solar sail in flight. JAXA Before committing. In other ...system near Venus (Figure 1). The Japanese mission was called IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun)....
August 2020
Interstellar aspirations
...to demonstrate a sunlight-propelled light sail with its IKAROS probe, launched in 2010. Propulsion technology The nearest ...spacecraft and by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) with its IKAROS probe, launched in 2010. Unfortunately, sunlight alone is not...
April 2020
Plasma Clipper - opening the age of sail, in space travel
The renowned Voyager spacecraft have been on an unmatched mission that has now taken them beyond the edges of the Solar System. But it has taken them over 40 years to do so and there is no other craft at present that could make the same journey on ...
