Akatsuki: Venus Orbit at Last!

Five years ago, Japan's robotic mission Akatsuki failed to enter orbit around Venus. A clogged valve caused catastrophic damage to the main engine, leaving the low-powered thrusters as its only steering mechanism. The mission team did not give up, and put the spacecraft in hibernation mode, only firing thrusters three times in 2011 to put it into a closer orbit to Venus. It traveled around the Sun five times before it met up with Venus. In 2015, four more maneuvers were performed, and on December 7, 2015, the little spacecraft that could finally entered orbit around Venus!

Image by JAXA.

This is the first mission by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) that has successfully fallen into orbit around a planet. Their first mission attempt, a Mars orbiter, failed to enter orbit twelve years ago. Space is hard. Japan's success is exciting in and of itself, and also because the more countries and organizations that are involved with space exploration, the more we will discover, the more we will know. 

Artist's impression of Akatsuki in orbit. Image Credit: Wikipedia commons

Akatsuki will act like a weather satellite for Venus. The mission team has to finish testing its instruments now that it is in Venus orbit, but starting in April 2016, it will continuously image the planet for days at a time, observing the motions of Venus' incredibly thick atmosphere. Hopefully it will help scientists understand why the winds on Venus reach 100 meters per second - 60 times the speed at which Venus rotates. That is similar to the speed of the fastest winds ever recorded on Earth, yet the Earth rotates 257 times faster than Venus! 

JAXA released several images of Venus from the orbital insertion, so we know three of its five cameras are working! If they all work, Akatsuki will be able to image Venus from the mid-infrared to ultraviolet. 

Akatsuki's first image of Venus. This image was taken in ultraviolet light. Image Credit: JAXA

Venus in infrared light. This camera will help detect temperature changes. Image Credit: JAXA

So be watching for more news and discoveries from Akatsuki, the little spacecraft that could! Also, don't forget to look up for the Geminid meteor shower. Tonight, December 14 is one of the nights of its peak, so if it is clear, it should be good viewing. Read this post to learn all about it. 

You can always learn the latest news from space in the Dome Planetarium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, where planetarium shows are included with general admission. 

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