NASA Solar probe to touch the sun

Parker solar probe named after Eugene Parker who gave us solar wind, and his research was hugely influential in the study of the sun and other stars.

The car-sized Parker will orbit the sun and constantly rotate itself so the heat shield is facing inward and blocking the brunt of the solar radiation. The instruments mostly sit behind it in a big insulated bundle.

Material used:

It’s a sort of carbon compound, with superheated carbon composite on the outside and a carbon foam core. All together it’s less than a foot thick, but it reduces the temprature the probe’s instruments are subjected to from 1400 degree celcius

Mission Profiling:

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After escaping the clutches of the Earth, it will swing by Venus, and it’ll do that seven more times in a spiral way, each spiral turn will bring it closer and closer to the sun’s surface, ultimately arriving in a stable orbit 3.83 million miles above the surface — that’s 95 percent of the way from the Earth to the sun.

On the way it will hit a top speed of 430,000 miles per hour, which will make it the fastest spacecraft ever launched.

The mission is scheduled to last seven years, after which time the fuel used to correct the craft’s orbit and orientation is expected to run out. At that point it will continue as long as it can before drift causes it to break apart and, one rather hopes, become part of the sun’s corona itself.

If all goes as planned, the $1.5 billion mission will survive its seven years in the sun thanks to a heat shield that was designed especially for this mission. During that time, the probe will beam back data that should revolutionize our understanding of our nearest star.

Why the spiral path around venus and not directly towards the sun?

The sun’s influence is felt throughout the solar system. Its immense gravity is what keeps everything in place. Despite its powerful pull, it’s actually really hard to fly toward it. “It takes 55 times more energy to go to the sun than it does to go to Mars,” according to NASA. To compensate for that, the Parker Solar Probe is getting a big assist from the planet Venus

Launch Date:

The Parker Solar Probe is scheduled for launch early Saturday morning. Do you think it is hot on earth right now?.