Ikaros extended mission and advanced solar power sail mission

Abstract

This paper presents IKAROS extended missions. IKAROS entered its extended operation phase at the beginning of 2011. In the extended operation, the spin rate was decreased to observe the deformation of the sail under low centrifugal force environment. On Oct. 18, 2011, IKAROS transferred to the reverse spin to enhance the knowledge about the effect of stiffness of membrane against the solar radiation pressure. We investigated the change of the attitude motion by the reverse spin mission. At the end of 2011, IKAROS moved to hibernation mode because the Sun angle was increased. We searched for IKAROS considering the attitude and orbital motion during hibernation. On Sep. 6, 2012, we succeedcd in tracking IKAROS which came out of hibernation. A solar power sail can be a hybrid propulsion system with a solar sail by activating the ultra-high specific impulse ion engines with the power generated by thin film solar cells. This paper also introduces an advanced solar power sail mission toward Jupiter and Trojan asteroids via hybrid electric photon propulsion. Show more