Development of Mission Devices and Sub-systems on Sail for World's First Solar Power Sail IKAROS

摘要

IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) developed by JAXA is the world's first operational solar sail spacecraft, and was launched in May 2010. This paper presents the development of a solar sail membrane of IKAROS introducing overall design considerations and each element such as a thermoplastic polyimide membrane, thin-film solar cells and reflectivity control devices. This paper also shows the evaluation of the spacecraft on orbit using flight data.