In 1999 I started (initially as a volunteer, later a minimum-wage full timer, and finally a slightly-above-minimum wage part-timer) working on the Solar Blade Nanosatellite project for the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute.
Over 10 years later, JAXA is on the verge of achieving our mission objective with a somewhat similar (though technically quite different) vehicle:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002532/
In short, they're trying to unfold a solar sail in space. If they succeed, I'm pretty sure they'll be the first to do so.
Solar sails are the epitome of the "slow but steady wins the race" school of travel. Their acceleration is trivial, but they can keep it up indefinitely. With careful maneuvering (the major difference between JAXA's IKAROS and the project I worked on is the method by which maneuvers are achieved), a solar sail can build up speeds impossible for any fuel-burdened spacecraft and go anywhere in the solar system.
I haven't been able to find any data on IKAROS's planned acceleration capability, but she's due to reach Venus in six months; not bad at all!
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