JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is trying everything possible to reestablish contact with your Akatsuki probealso known as PLANET-C or Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO), which orbits our twin planet, Venus.
In fact, since April the probe has interrupted contact with Earth and this is a major problem both for JAXA and for the entire world. In fact, Akatsuki is currently the only probe orbiting Venus and, therefore, the only source of close observations of this planet so similar to Earth but at the same time very different.
Few missions directed to Venus
The study of this fascinating planet immediately turned out to be very complicated. The history of the space exploration towards Venus It is, in general, recent and started in 1961when the Soviet Union managed to carry out a close flyby of the planet with the Venera 1 mission. Although the probe failed to send any data, 16 other missions carried out successful missions on this planet and the Venera program continued until 1983.
In those years, the United States also began its space exploration program towards Venus, which Europe and Japan joined only later.
However, Venus is extremely hostilewe could say lethal, both for any form of life and for the instruments sent to study the planet, which is why over the years there has only been one probe left to observe it closely: Akatsuki.
Venus, a planet as fascinating as it is deadly
However, it is not the first time that this mission has encountered problems and managed to overcome them, in fact we could almost say that this mission began with a failure.
In fact, after its launch on May 20, 2010 from the Tanegashima Space Center, the probe should have entered orbit around Venus on December 7, 2010 but failed. Five years later, on December 7, 2015, it managed to enter Venusian orbit.
Despite this initial delay, which was also quite significant, the probe managed to provide us very important information about Venus for almost 10 yearsmany more than initially expected.
Throughout his life he encountered other problems, for example in 2017 two of his five cameras went off, but he still continued with his mission: study the atmosphere of Venus.
What happens if we can’t make contact?
However, months have passed since he gave his last signs of life and, although JAXA has communicated that it is still trying to reestablish contact with Akatsuki, its loss (sooner or later) was already foreseen in any case.
Akatsuki, which means “sunrise” in Japanese, in these years of activity it has provided the scientific community with invaluable information about this little-studied planet.
Therefore, we can only wait for the Japanese technicians to solve the problems that afflict Akatsuki. waiting for a possible new mission Let it depart towards our twin, so as not to lose any type of close observation.
