IKAROS successfully stretches wings, prepares for solar spaceflight
By Sean Hollister 
posted June 13th 2010 2:26PM
posted June 13th 2010 2:26PM
posted June 13th 2010 2:26PM
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I think I prefer this type of propulsion method over plutonium...
just sayin
@madocs
nuclear power is much more efficient for spaceflight, but is really only useful for large scale civilization colony starters.
@musicssound
What?
@SiXiam
a good example are the atmosphere converters in the movie Aliens.
Also a good way exterminating Aliens if everything goes pear shaped.
As Ripley said: "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
The earth is flat, the sun goes around us, and it has a dark side. Or maybe The Dark Side.
@dajimmers Indeed, you may not know this but the underside of your "Sun" is actually the HQ of the Darkside corporation. I visit there regularly. And what is up with this tech? Solar sails? We've had these for millennia. Maybe you can finally visit us at the Darkside HQ with your new fangled technology. I might even give you all complimentary lightsabers when you come, that is if you have developed force fields to survive the heat of the sun
@dajimmers
I guess you havent heard about the newly discovered dark side? They're currently trying to figure out how to prevent sudden deceleration once the sail has no more light.
Still dont get this whole ALT thing
@steakman I don't get why they post the articles in regular and in alt. Also, why don't the articles have an alt.engadget.com url?
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget
does it really bother you that much that you need to make a comment about it?
and yes, before you. People moaning does annoy me.
@nabberuk
It just seems pointless, so people are asking question. You know, curiosity. The quintessential human trait.
The picture looks amazing!
proper futuristic. Very impressed. Wonder how quickly it can accelerate and if it has a theoretical maximum speed?
@Beamo
Light-speed dude!
@Beamo how fast it can accelerate - with a solar sail, very, very, very, very, very slowly. This one has an ion engine as well, so maybe lose one of those 'very's. One quote I read suggested it was expected to reach 100m/s in six months. Assuming this was reported right and I typed the numbers into my calculator properly, that gives an acceleration of 0.000006 m/s/s. For comparison, a car that does 0-60 in 10 seconds accelerates at about 2.7 m/s/s.
Also, Japanese Hayabusa asteroid mission comes home:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10285973.stm
expect amateur astronomers to look up at the night sky at a fireball hurtling towards the sun. the giant solar "sail" catches fire just as a scientist on earth says "what? wait - we're sending this thing around the sun!?"
"dark side of the sun" ???
'wat .... da fak'?
who thought about deep space nine and james bond - die another day
@Xstream
Haha I thought of Die Another Day immediatly. I am glad I am not the only one that thought of it.
Excellent! While we're at it, let's name my new yacht the Titanic and nickname my new car the Edsel, and call that blimp I just bought the Hindenburg!
They're going to get real dizzy going round and round looking for the Dark Side of the Sun...
So far side of the sun huh? Wonder if they'll see Planet X hurtling towards us.
Yes. That and a Death Star.
Engadget should stay focused on screen resolutions and batteries... There is no dark side of the sun, in fact, it's all lit.
You underestimate the power of the Dark Side!
This is so much cooler than an iPad...
Dark Side Of The... Sun. Hmmmmmm... Oh I know.. it's going to hide in the suns shadow!
Also, I may be mistaken but don't solar panels like sun?
@sys3175 They do - this one's both a solar sail and a solar panel, and is a test for a future mission which will use the solar energy to power an ion engine. (They're calling it a 'solar power sail'.)
(From closer reading it looks like I was wrong when I commented above - this one doesn't actually have an ion engine, just testing the panel - I think.)
Woah.. did anyone hit up the source link, apparently the Japanese cannot illustrate the sun without looking like they are going to try once again to take over the world :)
I bet Darth Tyrannus is hiding in the dark side of the sun, waiting to hijack this back to the soon-to-be-defunct Galactic Republic
@darkmax
What value does Earth have to a civ with replicators and fusion power plants?
@SiXiam
lolcats.
hope it doesn't fly too close to the sun
How do you fly toward the sun using particles that push you away from it?
That seems like a weird concept. The only way I see it working would be at an oblique angle to the direction of the solar wind. That works for a sailing ship on water, but in space we miss an important force that makes this possible, which is the Buoyancy of water.
Looks like the japanes outsmart me today:)
@bleakvision It's not going to the sun at all. http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/activity/images/ikaros/pic_06_l.jpg
So, what they are saying is, they are going to stick this solar sail powered craft where the sun don't shine?
Doesn't seem like a very nice way to test the first one... Poor thing.