NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
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Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#2The link to the original paper in the article is wrong, it can actually be found here [1](pdf).
1. https://physics.aps.org/featured-article-pdf/10.1103/PhysRev...
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#3> The Parker probe crossed into the Sun’s atmosphere at 9:33 a.m. Universal Time on 28 April of this year. It took several months for mission scientists to download and analyse the data it collected, and to be sure that the spacecraft had indeed crossed the much-anticipated boundary
What an achievement this is! I can't imagine the build up and anticipation the team members endured for months on end to finally get to this point.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#4The link to the original paper in the article is wrong, it can actually be found here [1](pdf). 1. https://physics.aps.org/featured-article-pdf/10.1103/PhysRev...
Thanks!
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#5If you’re curious why it won’t melt: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-s...
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#6I didn't even know this was possible to get something that could withstand this much heat and still take valid measurements. This is incredible. Congratulations to the team that made this happen.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#7From the article:
> A NASA spacecraft has entered a previously unexplored region of the Solar System — the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
> The mission’s closest approach is scheduled for 2025 at a distance of just 6.2 million kilometres from the solar surface, well within the orbit of Mercury.
> 18.4 solar radii (R⊙ ≡ 6.95 × 10⁵ km) from the center of the Sun
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasas-stereo-maps-much-...
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#8Icarus, consider yourself avenged.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#9Since getting that close takes a lot of DeltaV and I was curious:
>The Parker Solar Probe mission design uses repeated gravity assists at Venus to incrementally decrease its orbital perihelion to achieve a final altitude (above the surface) of approximately 8.5 solar radii, or about 6×106 km (3.7×106 mi; 0.040 au).[35] The spacecraft trajectory will include seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its elliptical orbit around the Sun, for a total of 24 orbits.[1] The near Sun radiation environment is predicted to cause spacecraft charging effects, radiation damage in materials and electronics, and communication interruptions, so the orbit will be highly elliptical with short times spent near the Sun.[34]
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#10From the article: > A NASA spacecraft has entered a previously unexplored region of the Solar System — the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. > The mission’s closest approach is scheduled for 2025 at a distance of just 6.2 million kilometres from the solar surface, well within the orbit of Mercury. From the paper, it looks like the closest approach was > 18.4 solar radii (R⊙ ≡ 6.95 × 10⁵ km) from the center of the Su…
I haven’t read any of this cause I’m on my phone but wouldn’t the closest approach occur in 2025? And isn’t the 6.95 quoted the closest distance so far?