Hatsune Miku's voyage through space has finally come to an end after 15 long years. The Japanese space probe Akatsuki has officially ceased operations, as reported by Automaton. The probe was originally launched on May 21, 2010, after famously being decorated with some 13,000 Hatsune Miku drawings and messages submitted by fans.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent the probe next door to Venus to study the planet's weather patterns and look for "signs of active volcanism." The probe also captured some stunning images of Venus that show the milky coffee hues of its atmosphere. JAXA reported that it lost contact with the probe in April 2024 and operations were officially terminated on Thursday. Akatsuki was the only operational probe specifically focused on studying Venus over the past ten years.
The Akatsuki team announced the shut down in a post on X (formerly Twitter), as translated by Automaton: "We have concluded operations of the Venus probe Akatsuki. Since last year we have been attempting to restore communications, but determined that recovery would be difficult, and so we have drawn this chapter to a close. We sincerely thank everyone who has supported Akatsuki over the 15 years since its launch."
Ahead of Akatsuki's launch in 2010, JAXA invited the general public to send in art and messages to get etched into the probe's aluminum balance weights. Fans of the voice synthesizer program Vocaloid, which (at the time) powered Hatsune Miku, saw the opportunity to send their favorite fictional pop star to the stars.
They sent in over 13,000 drawings and messages to go on Akatsuki, turning part of the probe into a monument to Miku. JAXA let it fly (literally) and the Hatsune Miku art got to spend 15 long years orbiting Venus.
While Venus may not have any robot friends flying around it at the moment, a few new missions are in the works. NASA is working on two probes, DAVINCI and VERITAS, both slated for launch in the early 2030s, and the European Space Agency is planning to send its EnVision probe to Venus sometime in the next decade, as well.
