Wednesday, June 16, 2010

JAXA Ikaros sail broken, not melted

The photo was taken by a camera ejected from the spacecraft's central hub.

This grainy image is visual confirmation that the solar sail launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has fully unfurled, following its launch last month.
The IKAROS sail is 20 metres corner to corner, but is just 0.0075 millimetres thick. It is designed to harness the motion from photon collisions to provide propulsion.

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