REAL LIFE NEWS: NASA’S MISSION TO THE SUN
by Hazed
At a press conference this week, NASA gave more details of its planned mission to study the sun. The Solar Probe Plus has been renamed the Parker Solar Probe, after astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who predicted the existence of the solar wind back in 1958.
The probe will travel much closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history. After taking off in July 2018, it will perform 24 close flybys of the sun over the next seven years. Some of these passes will bring it within just 3.9 million miles of the solar surface – seven times closer than any other probe has ever ventured.
During its closest approaches, Parker will experience temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius) and solar radiation intensities 475 times greater than we're used to on Earth. To cope with this extreme heat, the probe will be fitted with a 7.5 foot wide heat shield made from advanced carbon-composite material.
The spacecraft’s observations will help to solve two long-standing puzzles: how is the solar wind accelerated, and why is the sun’s corona (its outer atmosphere) so much hotter than the surface. Parker Solar Probe mission scientist Nicola Fox, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, said that these two questions can only be answered by getting close-up observations of the sun.
The answers are not just of academic interest, as Fox explained: "One recent study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that, without advance warning, a huge solar event could cause $2 trillion in damage in the U.S. alone, and the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. could be without power for a year," researchers at APL, which manages the mission for NASA, wrote in an online description.
"In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send [the Parker Solar Probe] to touch the sun."
Footnote: this reminds me of an old joke in which a country (commonly viewed as stereotypically stupid) planned a mission to the sun. “How will you avoid be burnt to a crisp?” they were asked. “Oh, it’ll be no problem – we’ll be going at night!”
Source: http://www.space.com/37035-nasa-sun-mission-parker-solar-probe.html
