A seven-year mission to uncover our star's secrets
By Rob Thubron
Why it matters: This Saturday, August 11, NASA’s unmanned Parker Solar
Probe is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
on a mission to “touch the sun.” The probe will be the first spacecraft
to fly into the low solar corona—the aura of plasma that surrounds our
closest star.
In order to reach the sun, the probe must leave Earth at a high
velocity. That’s why it will be hitching a ride on the United Launch
Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, which is the world’s second most
powerful rocket, beaten only by SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.
In a statement, NASA said the probe "will travel through the sun’s
atmosphere, closer to its surface than any spacecraft before it, facing
brutal heat and radiation conditions – and ultimately providing humanity
with the closest-ever observations of a star."
The probe will arrive at its destination by looping around Venus on
October 2 using a gravity assist maneuver that will control its approach
to the star. It should reach its first point of close approach to the
sun on November 5.
The 1000-pound, car-sized spacecraft will be performing 24 flybys of the
sun over its seven-year mission. At its closest point, the probe will
come within 4 million miles of the star’s surface, placing it within the
corona.
To survive temperatures of around 2,511 degrees Fahrenheit, the probe is
fitted with a 4.5-inch thick, 8-foot diameter carbon shield, which
keeps the on-board instruments at a warm but safe 85 degrees.
As noted by Space.com, those six instruments will be working to solve
three mysteries about the sun: why its atmosphere becomes hotter farther
away from the surface, how the solar wind of charged particles
streaming out into space is born, and what causes coronal mass
ejections.
Not only will the probe’s mission mark humanity’s closest visit to the
sun, it will also be the fastest man-made object ever, with top speeds
reaching 500,000 mph once it is in the star’s orbit. Additionally, it
will carry a memory card containing over 1.1 million names, including
William Shatner’s, of people who asked for them to be sent into the sun.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/33762
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Aug 6, 2018

NASA spacecraft set to "touch" the sun launches this Saturday
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