Operation scenario of PLANET-C: Venus Climate Orbiter (AKATSUKI)

This paper presents, the operations scenario, specifically the initial phase operation, of the Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) of PLANET-C: Venus Climate Orbiter Mission “AKATSUKI”. AKATSUKI is the first exploration program from Japan to Earth´s inferior planetary neighbor, Venus, and will be launched by an H-IIA vehicle on May 18^th 2010 (Japan Standard Time: JST) from Kagoshima Space Center. AKATSUKI aims at understanding the atmospheric characteristics of Venus. To accomplish this mission, AKATSUKI has five camera instruments onboard to image ultraviolet and thermal infrared wavelengths, to detect lightning with a high-speed imager, and to observe the vertical structure of the atmosphere using radio science techniques. To achieve these objectives, AKATSUKI has four operation phases; such as launch and initial check, cruise, Venus orbit injection (VOI) and nominal Venus observation. The VOI phase is a particularly critical phase to enter equatorial elongated Venus orbit. To achieve this trajectory, AKATSUKI requires an AOCS with the tolerance for the stringent high temperature environment produced in the inferior planet.