This is awesome, the engineering and execution is simply inspiring.
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
#32For metric system people, if the Sun and the Earth were 1 meter apart, the probe would get as close as 11cm from the Sun. (site writes: "If Earth was at one end of a yard-stick and the Sun on the other, Parker Solar Probe will make it to within four inches of the solar surface.")
But it's getting closer with each pass, and that distance will be down to 4cm by 2025.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#33If the Moon was 10x as far away from the Earth as it is now then that would still be closer to Earth than this probe ever was to the Sun.
And your point is?
The moon doesn't have a million-degree corona.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#34what hppen after that to spacecraft
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#35Since 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 shri…
Highly elliptical orbits are cheaper to achieve anyway, right? You can get into one directly from your Venus gravity assists, and not have to keep precious fuel to transfer to a circular orbit later on.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#36Icarus, consider yourself avenged.
That would have been a great name for this probe.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#37If you’re curious why it won’t melt: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-s...
Relevant part: the capturing cups are of metals with high melting points, plus
> The corona through which Parker Solar Probe flies, for example, has an extremely high temperature but very low density. Think of the difference between putting your hand in a hot oven versus putting it in a pot of boiling water
And for the rest of the craft there is a highly reflective heat shield.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#38If you’re curious why it won’t melt: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-s...
Relevant part: the capturing cups are of metals with high melting points, plus > The corona through which Parker Solar Probe flies, for example, has an extremely high temperature but very low density. Think of the difference between putting your hand in a hot oven versus putting it in a pot of boiling water And for the rest of the craft there is a highly reflective heat shield.
are you saying this protects you from Corona? why isn't this in the news?
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Relevant part: the capturing cups are of metals with high melting points, plus > The corona through which Parker Solar Probe flies, for example, has an extremely high temperature but very low density. Think of the difference between putting your hand in a hot oven versus putting it in a pot of boiling water And for the rest of the craft there is a highly reflective heat shield.
are you saying this protects you from Corona? why isn't this in the news?
Putting your head in a hot oven continuously will probably prevent you from dying of the coronavirus indeed.
Re: NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
are you saying this protects you from Corona? why isn't this in the news?
Putting your head in a hot oven continuously will probably prevent you from dying of the coronavirus indeed.
As does flying to the sun, for that matter. Can't catch corona if you're ~150 million kilometers away from the nearest other person.