Japanese Spacecraft Almost Ready To Leave For Venus Mission

Even though the Akatsuki probe was planning to land at Venus in December 2010, the Japanese spacecraft's engine made it miss its target and return to the sun's orbit.

Still, last December, Akatsuki's handlers brought it back to Venus and can begin a science operation concentrating on the earth's "sister planet."

"Akatsuki has been performing test observations by turning on its onboard observation instruments one by one," officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

"The instruments are starting up normally, and we have already conducted successful observations that are equivalent to a 'minimum success,' thus we will move to regular operations in mid-April," they added.

The aim behind the Akatsuki spacecraft, meaning "dawn" in Japanese, was to study clouds, weather and atmosphere near Venus with six different instruments to gather information. It cost $300 million to design. Scientists will use the information to comprehend why and how the planet, which was just like the earth billions of years ago, turned so hot and hostile to life.

The team has been attempting a nine-day orbit at 193,000 miles from the planet. They hope to reach the goal by the time its study on Venus starts.

In December 2010, its first probe into a Venus orbit  failed due to thermal issues, pushing the spacecraft into safe mode. The JAXA scientists could not bring it back to its standard operational mode, and threw it into the sun's orbit. But with high-precision thruster firings, they turned it to Venus again.

The Akatsuki Japanese spacecraft was launched  in May 2010 along with JAXA's Ikaros investigation. Experts are confident that it can achieve originally planned goals in the orbit.