Japan's Solar Sail Is the Toast of Space Science

http://www.space.com/news/solar-sail-exploration-hailed-100721.html

Japan's Solar Sail Is the Toast of Space Science
By Jeremy Hsu
SPACE.com Senior Writer
posted: 21 July 2010

NEW YORK – Researchers from around the world are celebrating what they're calling a new dawn for spaceflight following the success of a Japanese craft propelled by a solar sail.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spacecraft Ikaros, which launched in May alongside the Venus-bound orbiter Akatsuki, is the first vehicle to have deployed a solar sail and successfully rode the sunlight in deep space.

Ikaros mission scientists and other researchers are discussing the state of solar sail propulsion this week at the second International Symposium on Solar Sailing at the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. The three-day symposium began Tuesday.

"It should have begun with a famous New York ticker-tape parade for our colleagues from Japan who took us to this reality," said Louis Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society, in Pasadena, Calif., which has attempted to use solar sails and is preparing for another mission.

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