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The IKAROS solar sail entered its fifth hibernation in spring 2015, with a planned wake up in winter 2015 (Northern Hemisphere). However, there seems to be no news since then regarding the mission status.

Is there any information on if the probe successfully woke up as expected?

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  • $\begingroup$ In the Northern Hemisphere, there is winter in both January and December. Do you mean the beginning of 2016, or the end (hemisphere-agnostic)? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    May 25, 2017 at 21:12
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh it was actually planned to be in the second winter of 2015, after going into hibernation during spring 2015. $\endgroup$
    – Larkeith
    May 26, 2017 at 5:17

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According to JAXA, the fifth wakeup was expected in the winter of 2015, not 2016. http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/ikaros/topics.html#topics4743

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  • $\begingroup$ Good catch - edited the OP, this is what I get for not checking Wikipedia's sources (and only skimming the JAXA mission page). Unfortunately, that doesn't really answer the question. $\endgroup$
    – Larkeith
    May 26, 2017 at 5:10
  • $\begingroup$ That link is the JAXA home page for Ikaros. If there's no news on that page, it's unlikely to be anywhere else. A quick search for Ikaros news articles hasn't turned up anything more recent. $\endgroup$
    – Hobbes
    May 26, 2017 at 14:33
  • $\begingroup$ I couldn't find anything else either. On that same website, however, it does indicate that the craft is still in operation. So I'm assuming it woke up? Either that or they didn't update their website, or expect to be able to wake it up in the future. $\endgroup$
    – Arthur Dent
    May 26, 2017 at 22:11

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