Official declaration of death for Japanese probe famous for sending fictional pop star to Venus.
Venus, officially, is a planet without a probe. After losing contact with the spacecraft Akatsuki last year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officially concluded the operations of the lonely mission in orbit around our neighboring planet.
This week, JAXA determined that it would be unlikely to recover its Venus-bound probe, formally ending the 15-year mission. Akatsuki, meaning “dawn” in Japanese, was launched on May 21, 2010, to study Venus’ weather patterns and confirm the presence of lightning in the planet’s dense clouds. The probe became famous for carrying thousands of drawings of the iconic Japanese vocaloid singer, Hatsune Miku, taking the fictional pop star on a unique space journey.
Difficult Beginnings
The Akatsuki spacecraft, also known as Venus Climate Orbiter or Planet-C, had a rough start to its journey. As it approached the planet that is second from the sun, the spacecraft experienced engine problems that prevented it from entering Venus’ orbit.
As a result, the spacecraft spent nearly five years hibernating in orbit around the sun. However, JAXA persevered and performed an engine switch, using the secondary engine to control the spacecraft, even though it only had one-fifth of the main engine’s thrust.
Shortly after, Akatsuki made its first discovery. The spacecraft detected a massive curve in Venus’ atmosphere, extending almost from the north pole to the south pole. Scientists determined that the gigantic structure was caused by gravity waves in an atmosphere where air moves over very rugged terrain (in this case, Venus’ high mountains).
Akatsuki became Japan’s first successful attempt at exploring another planet. The spacecraft is equipped with four ultraviolet and infrared wavelength cameras, a high-speed camera to detect lightning in Venus’ clouds, and radio science techniques to observe the vertical structure of its atmosphere.
In April 2024, JAXA lost contact and communication with Akatsuki. “We have been trying to restore communications since last year, but it was determined to be unlikely, so we decided to end this chapter,” JAXA wrote in X.
However, Venus will not remain lonely for much longer, as NASA prepares to send two missions to the scorching planet. The DAVINCI probe will launch in 2030, followed by VERITAS in 2031, both aiming to better understand how Venus became such a hot inferno, as it shares similar characteristics to Earth.
This article has been translated from Gizmodo US by Lucas Handley. find the original version.
