More images taken by IKAROS. Official first stage sail deployment begins tomorrow

"One of the three missing minisatellites detected"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/technol...llites-detected

This is interesting: studies have been carried out on the possibility of sending Akatsuki's secondary payloads to other targets in the solar system. It turns out Apophis can be reached

see: http://archive.ists.or.jp/upload_pdf/2008-d-43.pdf

I would assume that the secondary payload they're referring to is IKAROS; three of the four minisats are stuck in Earth orbit...and I don't think UNITEC-1 has any onboard propellant that would allow it to change course once it reached Venus.

If I understand correctly this JAXA release (in Japanese only) Akatsuki carried out its first 12m/s course correction on 28 June

JAXA has released some stellar calibration images taken earlier this month
http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/index.html
unfortunately, the release is in Japanese only, but the google translation is quite readable

two interesting-looking pages on Akatsuki telecommunications systems and antennae
http://www.nec.co.jp/ad/cosmos/akatsuki/02/?cid=twi
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/j/column/akatsuki/06.shtml
unfortunately, they are only in Japanese for the time being...

Date of AKATSUKI injection to Venus orbit

http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f17/index_e.html

JAXA decided to emit jets from the orbital maneuvering engine (OME) of the AKATSUKI at 8:49:00 a.m. on Dec. 7 (Japan Standard Time, all the following dates and time are in JST) to inject the orbiter into the Venus orbit. Under the current schedule, the OME jet emission will be completed at 9:01:00 a.m. on the same day, and the Venus orbit will be determined around 9:00 p.m. also on the same day after some attitude control maneuvers including the Earth pointing maneuver of the Z axis.

The AKATSUKI will study the Venus atmosphere for about two years after being injected into the Venus orbit

8:49:00 a.m. on Dec. 7 JST (11:49:00 p.m. on Dec. 6 UTC)

****

What I'm wondering is when Akatsuki will start taking images of Venus as the spacecraft nears arrival...and when JAXA will release 'em

I don't know the details of science operations : the JAXA team is understandably focussed on
getting safely into orbit first. NASA did just announce (although oddly not yet linked on
the NASA or JAXA Akatsuki pages, as far as I can tell) the selection of US-supported
participating scientists for Akatsuki. Among their (our) tasks will be to assist with archiving the
data in a PDS-consistent format and with Education/Public Outreach efforts....

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-389

from the latest ESA bulletin (published online yesterday http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMO6LIRPGG_index_0.html )

AKATSUKI ready for orbit injection

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" shifted its attitude at 7:50 a.m. on December 6 to be ready for Venus orbit insertion at 8:49 a.m. on December 7.

On the 7th, we will hold some events to support the AKATSUKI orbit injection. We plan to run the "Venus arrival live broadcast" featuring the AKTSUKI and show the scene of the AKATSUKI Control Room" at a public viewing site. Please come and join the injection moment. (* All time and dates are Japan Standard Time.)

http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f17/topics_e.html

Something has started here. Akatsuki-related?

A little less than 2 hrs to go.

Go, Akatsuki!

From their twitter:
"[From Akatsuki Team] For Orbit insertion forty-nine past eleven p.m. Burn at UT, we confirmed Have LATCH Valve is opened."

Just for statistics: if successful, Akatsuki will become the eighth Venus orbiter, after 4 Soviet ones, 2 US and 1 European.
Remarkably, no Venus orbiter has ever failed before reaching the planet, unlike the many (10) lost Mars orbiters

Akatsuki begins its orbit insertion burn around Venus in less than an hour. Hopefully everything goes smooth!

There is now audio on the stream.

Aargh! I can't get the stream here at work. Is the burn going OK?

I'm getting a stream but it's extremely choppy. There's no English translation available but there has been a couple episodes of clapping.

Well the burn should be over now. We'll just assume that the clapping is a good sign that Akatsuki is now a satellite of Venus.

They should be coming out of comm blackout now.
We'll know soon.

Hungry, are you using the same link you posted for the stream? I can't get it to load at all.

Yes.

They were supposed to regain contact with the spacecraft seven minutes ago. I haven't seen any applause or cheering (though granted the stream does suck.)

Ah--thanks. Looking forward to updates, will watch this topic closely...looks like it'll be the only near-RT info source available in English.

Afraid there's not much to say at the moment...
A lot of people looking at their monitors. Others looking at graphs projected onto the wall. No one looks particularly amused.

May have heard some clapping. (again, with the way the feed is, it's really hard to make things out)

Shouldn't we have heard something by now?

I don't know what this is but it is being presented to the viewers.

aahhh haaaa the stream is working

Kind of lol

If his pen marks the position of the spacecraft, they may have made it.

Blast and damn, I can't get the stream to work!!!

Oh, well. My wife's out shopping anyhow...hopefully she'll be home soon for some translation duty...

They showed a visually impressive demonstration of a cup being crushed in a pressure chamber. The cup had solar arrays marked on it.
May have heard some clapping, too.

Communications currently interrupted with the spacecraft since its antenna is facing away from Earth.

We shouldn't officially get an update on Akatsuki's current orbital position till 4 AM, PST (7 AM, EST)

http://twitter.com/Akatsuki_JAXA

That's a comforting explanation.

The twitter feed hasnt been updated for an hour.

Important?

A significant amount of clapping... probably because the feed just ended.
Looks like it was just applauding the end of the show.

Edit: Though feed from the control room remains.

My wife's translation of the sign: "Akatsuki presents key word!"

Interpretation: She chirped an "I'm okay" signal?

My sincerest thanks for your wife's translations.

I like your interpretation, I hope it's true. =)

She said "you're welcome".

The language barrier just makes the uncertainty worse, of course, but I don't think that they would have shown that sign unless things were not nearly as black as they seemed awhile back. We don't know if everything is nominal--based on what you wrote, doesn't seem like it--but it looks like Akatsuki is still in the game.

Now to wait some more to see if she made orbit, I guess...

So do I - I have to get to bed....good luck Akatsuki!

Me too! I've got my fingers crossed.

I really should have gone to bed some time ago but simply couldn't due to this event. We have obviously gotten used to following events like this in real time without any problems. Hopefully everything is OK.

Finally, new tweets at Akatsuki_JAXA (link)



Edit: ...after being passed through Google translator.

Emily posted a helpful chart showing the timeline of events after the orbit insertion burn

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002802/

From cosmos4u:


Edit: From the same source:

This url (a translated twitter...) shows some interesting tweets.

New Tweet from @Akatsuki_JAXA: [More] Sagamihara operation room about 28 minutes at 10 December 07, 2010 (Japan time), and received a wave from the Akatsuki. Currently, we went to check the state of the satellite.

My wife's translation of the most recent tweet from Akatsuki_JAXA (10 min ago as I write this):

'As of 7 Dec 2010 1028 JST received signal from Akatsuki. We are attempting to verify its position (attitude?)."

She said it 'came from Mission Control'.

Spaceflight Now is reporting the "mission's fate uncertain."

The good news: "Engineers confirmed ignition of the thruster before Akatsuki passed behind Venus"

"Controllers finally received signals from the spacecraft at 0128 GMT Tuesday (8:28 p.m. EST), or at 10:28 a.m. Japanese time."

I hope to hear that Akatsuki is safely in Venusian orbit tomorrow morning. Have a good night all.