May Launch for Ikaros Solar Sail Technology

Japan has announced groundbreaking plans to draw on space solar energy to power satellite technology.

A satellite will be launched in three weeks time featuring a vast sail measuring 66 feet across that will expand as the craft passes beyond the atmosphere. This sail will incorporate minute solar panels made out of thin-film solar, an emerging technology with the potential to take over from standard photovoltaics.

Thin-film solar is thinner than human hair and, on this basis, can be moulded to fit surfaces precisely.

Solar Sail Technology

According to Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency ((JAXA), the solar satellite will exist as a showcase platform to highlight the potential offered by renewable energy technologies, specifically solar sail technology, in the 21st century. It will be named ‘Ikaros’ - Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun – and is set to leave Earth on its first mission on 18 May.

‘Ikaros’ is a reference to the Greek mythological character Icarus, who is reported to have flown with wings of wax which the sun’s rays melted when he got too close to it.

“Ikaros is a space yacht that gets propulsion from the pressure of sunlight particles bouncing off its sail”, JAXA representative Yuichi Tsuda explained in comments made to the media, adding that its thin-film solar cells represented “a hybrid technology of electricity and pressure.”

Ikaros: Solar Sail

The position of Ikaros’ sail will influence its direction of travel: altering it will expose the solar cells to the sun at a different angle and affect the way in which the particles bounce off.

“Solar sails are the technology that realises space travel without fuel as long as we have sunlight”, Tsuda said. “The availability of electricity would enable us to navigate farther and more effectively in the solar system.”

Towards the end of 2009, details emerged of Japan’s Space Solar Power System: a formation of photovoltaic devices that will collect solar energy and transmit it back down to Earth.