Skip to content
The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

Title

Name

Primary Menu
  • Home
  • Mindanao
  • Visayas
  • National
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • International
  • SciTech
  • Health & Wellness
  • Sports
  • About Us
    • Regional Advertising Rates
    • Contact Us
    • Profile
  • Home
  • International
  • At Venus, a Japanese spacecraft is almost ready for big science – Fox News
  • Featured
  • International
  • Technology

At Venus, a Japanese spacecraft is almost ready for big science – Fox News

Editor April 7, 2016

A Japanese spacecraft’s long-awaited Venus campaign is finally about to begin.

Japan’s Akatsuki probe was originally supposed to arrive at Venus in December 2010, but an engine failure caused the spacecraft to miss its target and zoom off into orbit around the sun. But this past December, Akatsuki’s handlers managed to guide the craft back to Venus, and now the probe is just about ready to start science operations.

“Akatsuki has been performing test observations by turning on its onboard observation instruments one by one,” Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials wrote in an update on Friday (April 1).  [Japan at Venus: See the photos from Akatsuki]

“The instruments are starting up normally, and we have already conducted successful observations that are equivalent to a ‘minimum success,'” they added. “Thus we will move to regular operations in mid-April.”

The $300 million Akatsuki spacecraft, whose name means “dawn” in Japanese, was designed to study Venus’ clouds, weather and atmosphere up close using six different instruments. The probe’s observations should help researchers better understand how Venus, which may have been quite Earth-like billions of years ago, became so hot and seemingly inhospitable to life, JAXA officials have said.

The original plan called for Akatsuki to orbit Venus once every 30 hours, at a maximum distance (apoapsis) of about 50,000 miles. But the second-chance run at Venus put the probe in a 13-day orbit that took Akatsuki as far as 273,000 miles from the planet’s surface, JAXA officials said.

Over the past few months, Akatsuki has been working to get to a less elliptical orbit; JAXA has stated that it wants the probe to be in a nine-day orbit with an apoapsis of about 193,000 miles by the time regular operations begin.

Akatsuki should still be able to accomplish most of its original science goals from such an orbit, JAXA officials have said. The vessel launched in May 2010 along with JAXA’s Ikaros probe, which became the first spacecraft ever to deploy and use a solar sail in interplanetary space.(Mike Wall)

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/04/06/at-venus-japanese-spacecraft-is-almost-ready-for-big-science.html

fb-share-icon
Tweet 20

Continue Reading

Previous: ​Texas executes man who said he drank victim’s blood – CBS News
Next: Malaysian parliament calls for inquiry into 1MDB’s former boss – The Guardian

Related News

Dmitry-Medvedev
  • International

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons

Editor June 23, 2025
Iran-Nuclear-Sites-target
  • International

Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’

Editor June 23, 2025
KA-GO-Cordless-Food-Chopper
  • Business
  • Technology

The New KitchenAid® Go™ Cordless System brings Freedom to the Kithchen

Editor June 17, 2025

Trending News

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons Dmitry-Medvedev 1
  • International

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons

June 23, 2025
Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’ Iran-Nuclear-Sites-target 2
  • International

Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’

June 23, 2025
PH gov’t hits country’s ‘false ranking’ as least safe for travelers Christina-Frasco-Dot 3
  • National
  • Tourism

PH gov’t hits country’s ‘false ranking’ as least safe for travelers

June 19, 2025
PhilHealth’s New Benefits for Post-Kidney Transplantation Services PhilHealth-Artcard 4
  • Health
  • National

PhilHealth’s New Benefits for Post-Kidney Transplantation Services

June 19, 2025
How a Teacher is Cultivating the Future of Agriculture, One Batch of Scholars at a Time JeromeMabaso_ JGF-1 5
  • Business

How a Teacher is Cultivating the Future of Agriculture, One Batch of Scholars at a Time

June 19, 2025
  • Facebook
  • X
  • YouTube
  • Blog
Copyright © 2025. The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper. All Rights Reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.