The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a H-2A rocket containing the Akatsuki spacecraft (from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan) to Venus at 7.44 am AEST Tuesday morning. Assuming the rocket launches on time, it will send the probe on a trajectory that will see it reach Venus in December 2010. The probe will then Venus’s thick atmosphere from orbit. The launch will be webcast on the Internet.
Accompanying the Akatsuki spacecraft, will be the world’s first solar sail powered spacecraft IKAROS. As the name implies, the spacecraft is designed to demonstrate that the Sun’s solar wind can be harnessed by giant reflective sails to send spacecraft throughout the solar system (as opposed to having to rely on traditional rocket engines which consume fuel). According to the JAXA website, the IKAROS mission is to be followed later this decade by an ion drive and solar sail equipped mission to Jupiter and a number of Trojan asteroids.
