Akatsuki and IKAROS are now onboard the H-2A rocket! The move to the Vehicle Assembly Building took place early this morning (May 9)

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun/status/13642295786

Akatsuki and IKAROS about to be transported to the VAB for mating to H-2A rocket

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun/status/13593614219

And here are photos showing the aluminum plates containing 63,248 names and a Planetary Society-provided DVD containing 89,000 names (that were submitted online between December of last year and March 22) being installed onto IKAROS

Better-quality pics of the encapsulation

http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/index.html

Akatsuki and IKAROS are now encapsulated in the H-2A rocket's payload fairing

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

Next up should be the move to the Vehicle Assembly Building so the payload could be mated with the H-2A itself

Akatsuki and IKAROS ready for fairing encapsulation and attachment to H-2A rocket

http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/

Akatsuki has a Twitter page as well

http://twitter.com/Akatsuki_JAXA

Akatsuki and IKAROS are now mated together in the SFA.

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun

If the Google translations aren't the epitome of sexual innuendo, I don't know what is.

Nameplates attached to Akatsuki

http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/index.html - 16 March 2010 (1) Update

Tomorrow marks 2 decades since HST was launched onboard space shuttle Discovery.

HST has played such a pivotal role in presenting the cosmos to the world that even Google is honoring the special occasion

EDIT: The DVD was attached to IKAROS on April 25 (using Velcro).

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun/status/12800570532

There haven't been any online updates about Akatsuki since...March 19, but the IKAROS solar sail is being transported to the Spacecraft and Fairing Assembly (SFA) Building at Tanegashima Space Center tomorrow. There, IKAROS will eventually be encapsulated by the payload fairing before being attached to the H-2A launch vehicle.

About 27 days and counting...

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun

The Babylon translation is even more horrendous.

If only there was an English version of the IKAROS Twitter page...like the main JAXA page

The DVD was installed on IKAROS last night.

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun/status/12337727130

The grammar is a bit off when you translate it on Google or Babylon.com, but you get the idea

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/new...no20100405.html

Juno Taking Shape in Denver

Assembly has begun on NASA's Juno spacecraft, which will help scientists understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. The mission, whose principal investigator is Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex., is expected to launch in August 2011 and reach Jupiter in 2016.

The assembly, testing and launch operations phase began April 1 in a high-bay clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver. Engineers and technicians will spend the next few months fitting instruments and navigation equipment onto the spacecraft.

"We're excited the puzzle pieces are coming together," Bolton said. "We're one important step closer to getting to Jupiter."

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Underneath its dense cloud cover, the planet safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

Juno will have nine science instruments on board to investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.

"We plan to be doing a lot of testing in the next few months," said Jan Chodas, the project manager based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We want to make sure the spacecraft is ready for the long journey to Jupiter and the harsh environment it will encounter there."

JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency, Rome, is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.

For more information about Juno, visit http://www.nasa.gov/juno.

IKAROS is now inside a clean room at the Tanegashima Space Center...according to its Twitter page

http://twitter.com/ikaroskun

I used Babylon.com to translate the Tweet

http://translation.babylon.com/Japanese/to-English/

I assume it won't be till after 2011...when Falcon proves its mettle in safely delivering cargo (and/or crew) to the ISS.

Project Page: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/ikaros/index_e.html

Photos: http://jda.jaxa.jp/jda/p3_e.php?mode=level...mp;mission=9095

Description Page: http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/activity/ikaros.html

I read elsewhere that Panavision (the long-time supplier of movie cameras for Hollywood films) was to provide lens for the Mastcam. Don't know if that's still the case.

The IKAROS solar sail is set to join Akatsuki at Tanegashima Space Center around April 2, after leaving the Sagamihara campus on March 29...according to Spaceflightnow.com

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/h2a/akatsuki/100322shipment/

March 18, 2010 Updated

AKATSUKI leaves for Tanegashima

The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" left the Sagamihara Campus for the Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) on the evening of March 17.

The AKATSUKI will be delivered to the TNSC on the 19th. It will undergo final launch preparations there.

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

Akatsuki (and IKAROS solar sail) launch date set:

6:44:14 a.m. on May 18 (Japan time) / 5:44:14 p.m. EDT on May 17

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

NASA's SUV-sized Mars rover now has the ability to check for possible ingredients or signatures of life. The U.S. space agency recently approved a new instrument for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) that can closely study carbon-containing compounds, if any show up in the dozens of planned soil and rock samples.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2...ngredients-life

And check out this hilarious article, which talks about the same experiment:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/06/msl_sam_enhancement/

"Nuclear-powered robot laser tank"... "Planet-prowlers"...

The author for some odd reason refuses to use the word "rover" more than once in this article.

The Planetary Society is collecting names and messages to be placed on its Lightsail-1 spacecraft...as well as another solar sail that will be launched with Japan's Akatsuki mission to Venus next year:

http://www.planetary.org/special/fromearth/sail

The deadline is March 14

The Planetary Society is now collecting names for Akatsuki as well...complete with a much better-looking certificate than the one the JAXA site provides...

http://planetary.org/special/fromearth/akatsuki/

It would be awesome if there's another Mercury-bound mission that allowed us to submit our names for it.

Once Akatsuki launches and (safely) reaches Venus, and Glory (flawlessly) launches next year, I myself would personally have my name around all the major inner solar system bodies except Mercury (Akatsuki at Venus, Glory around the Earth and LRO around the Moon, Kepler in heliocentric orbit near Earth, Phoenix...and hopefully Curiosity...at Mars, and Dawn at Vesta and then Ceres)

Still waiting for that next New Horizons-type opportunity, though...

Deadline is December 25, 2009. Messages are optional

http://venus.star2009.jp/index_e.php