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, formerly known as the Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) and Planet-C, is a Japanese space probe which is intended to explore Venus. It was launched aboard an H-IIA 202 rocket on 20 May 2010. The total launch mass of the spacecraft including propellant was , with scientific instruments accounting for of its total weight. The mission reached Venus on 7 December 2010 (JST) but failed to enter orbit around the planet, and thus remains in a heliocentric orbit. It had been intended to conduct scientific research for two or more years from an elliptical orbit around Venus ranging from in altitude.〔 Scientists plan to place the craft into an alternative elliptical Venerian orbit ranging from in December 2015. Akatsuki is Japan's first planetary exploration mission since the Nozomi probe, which was launched in 1998 but failed to go into orbit around Mars in 2003 as was planned. ==Mission== ''Akatsuki'' is a Japanese space mission to the planet Venus. Planned observations include cloud and surface imaging from an orbit around the planet with an infrared camera, which are aimed at investigation of the complex Venerian meteorology. Other experiments are designed to confirm the presence of lightning and to determine whether volcanism occurs currently on Venus.〔 The budget for this mission is ¥14.6 billion () for the satellite and ¥9.8 billion (US$116 million) for the launch. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Akatsuki (spacecraft)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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