Still alive

I'm still alive, just rather busy settling into the new job and the added commuting. When I have time I'll get back to posting. In the mean time:

• Space.com has a short article with more images of IKAROS's solar sail (mentioned previously here).
• NASA and NOAA engineers have got GOES-P's Solar X-ray Imager working again (see also a Space.com article). Hooray X-rays!

Japanese satellite succesfully deploys solar sail

JAXA's IKAROS satellite has successfully deployed it solar sail and is getting power from the thin film solar panels. It'll be another six month's before we'll know whether the next part of the mission, actually being propelled by radiation pressure on the sail, is successful.

The JAXA press release has a really nice graphic explaining how the sail was unfurled.

For more on solar sails, see the SolarSailWiki.