Japan Launches Akatsuki Venus Orbiter

Japan has launched its Venus climate orbiter, Akatsuki, from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, in southern Japan.

The spacecraft should reach the orbit of Venus in December.

Akatsuki will remain in orbit for two years, studying the the atmosphere and climate of Venus.

It will examine  Venus' temperature, clouds and winds.

The name "Akatsuki" means dawn.

Akatsuki will orbit the poles at a height that will range from 300 to 80,000 kilometer (200 to 50,000 miles) above the surface of Venus.

Five instruments on Akatsuki will record images. One will record ultraviolet wavelengths, in order to detect the presence of sulfur dioxide. Another will take infrared images, for studies of winds and clouds at night. Two more will look into the near-infrared, to study the lower atmosphere and the ground. Another will look for flashes of lightning in the visible light spectrum.

Akatsuki also has a radio transmitter that will allow mission scientists to map temperatures in the upper atmosphere.

It is hoped that Akatsuki will provide scientists with insight regarding cloud formation and volcanic activity. Scientists wonder whether the volcanoes on Venus are emitting sulfur dioxide

Scientists are also interested in learning why Venus' atmosphere is rotating at a much faster rate than the planet itself (super-rotating).

The atmosphere of Venus makes a complete rotation in one hundredth of the time that it takes the planet itself to rate.

According to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Akatsuki has already sent back some images of Earth that were taken from 250,000 kilometers (150,000 miles) up.

Akatsuki, which is also called "Planet-C", was launched from an H-II-F17 rocket at 6:58 AM Japan Standard Time on May 21. It separated from the rocket 27 minutes and 29 seconds after the launch.

The rocket also carried Japan's solar powered spacecraft, Ikaros (the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun.)

Ikaros has a square polymer sail that is that is coated with solar cells, which convert sunlight to electricity.

In addition, H-11-F17 launched four small satellites that were built by Japanese universities. Three will orbit the Earth while one, which is testing computer durability, is moving toward Venus.

Akatsuki cost Japan about 25 billion yen, or around US$280 million, to develop. Ikaros has cost about 1.5 billion yen (around 16 million dollars).

Japan has a long history of involvement in space. The country's first satellite was launched in 1970.

A European Space Agency (ESA) craft has been studying Venus since 2006.