Parker Solar Probe/NASA image release Sept 3, 2010/Wikimedia Commons Caption: The Solar Probe Plus spacecraft with solar panels folded into the shadows of its protective shield, gathers data on its approach to the Sun. Credit: JHU/APL NASA Selects Science Investigations for Solar Probe Plus NASA has begun development of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before. The unprecedented project, named Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch no later than 2018. The small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately four million miles from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered. NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the sun's biggest mysteries. "The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics -- why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system? " said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington. "We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers." As the spacecraft approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding 2550 degrees Fahrenheit and blasts of intense radiation. The spacecraft will have an up close and personal view of the sun enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers. NASA invited researchers in 2009 to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists. The total dollar amount for the five selected investigations is approximately $180 million for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests. To read more go to: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/sunearthsystem/main/solarprobeplus.html NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – NASA Probe Calls Home After Close Encounter With Sun The U.S. space agency says its Parker Solar Probe has called home after it survived the closest human-backed approach to the sun in recorded history.
NASA announced Friday that the spacecraft sent a signal following its successful attempt to pass within a record-breaking 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the scorching star.
The agency said it received an all-clear message from Parker on Thursday night confirming it survived the journey.
“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star,” said Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun, Parker has since flown straight through its crownlike outer atmosphere, or corona.
Scientists hope to understand better why the corona is hundreds of times hotter than the sun’s surface and what drives the solar wind, the supersonic stream of charged particles constantly blasting away from the sun.
“By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet,” Fox stressed.
It’s the fastest spacecraft built by humans and reached 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour) at its closest approach. NASA said it is outfitted with a heat shield that can withstand scorching temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius).
“It both is our closest, friendliest neighbor,” NASA’s Joe Westlake explained, “but also, at times, is a little angry.”
With its close brush complete, the craft is due to circle the sun at this distance through at least September.
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