Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
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Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#2As I understand, temperature is a measure of how fast atoms and molecules are vibrating, and not a measure of how much energy per unit area of contact can be transferred in a unit time.
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#3[deleted]
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#4Dad joke: "They'll go at night"
But really, it's cool that they're using carbon-carbon protection similar to that which was originally developed for the leading edges of the Space Shuttle. And I really want to know how they built foamed carbon for the interior.
I'm guessing that they're using white ceramic paint on top instead of a reflective foil shield (like the Webb uses) because the foil would be shredded by the solar particles.
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#5As I understand, temperature is a measure of how fast atoms and molecules are vibrating, and not a measure of how much energy per unit area of contact can be transferred in a unit time.
Exactly.
Stick your hand into an oven at 100 celsius ...OR...
Stick your hand into into a pot of water at 100 celsius.
The difference is that the water molecules are more tightly packed, than the air molecules in the oven. In space, they are quite far apart.
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#6As I understand, temperature is a measure of how fast atoms and molecules are vibrating, and not a measure of how much energy per unit area of contact can be transferred in a unit time.
As explained in the article.
> Temperature measures how fast particles are moving, whereas heat measures the total amount of energy that they transfer.
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#7As I understand, temperature is a measure of how fast atoms and molecules are vibrating, and not a measure of how much energy per unit area of contact can be transferred in a unit time.
Exactly. Stick your hand into an oven at 100 celsius ...OR... Stick your hand into into a pot of water at 100 celsius. The difference is that the water molecules are more tightly packed, than the air molecules in the oven. In space, they are quite far apart.
> Stick your hand into into a pot of water at 100 celsius
..and: please don't! :)
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#8>Another challenge came in the form of the electronic wiring — most cables would melt from exposure to heat radiation at such close proximity to the Sun. To solve this problem, the team grew sapphire crystal tubes to suspend the wiring, and made the wires from niobium.
are these wires on the outside of the spacecraft? but what about the silicon of all the electronic stuff that this thing must be keeping? The cooling surface would also get a bit hot (it would always get some more energy at some rate), so how does the coolant transmit any heat away from the probe?
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#9Any reason why they're using water for cooling? There's no other liquid with lower density and perhaps better thermal properties?
I imagined they would try to save weight in some places if it allows them more freedom in others. Although I have no idea how much water is used in the first place so it might be a moot point.
Re: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
#10>This all has to happen without any human intervention, so the central computer software has been programmed and extensively tested to make sure all corrections can be made on the fly.
I'd love to get some deeper insight into how NASA writes and tests software, I can only guess it's a million miles from how most of us work. Anyone know of any good talks, articles from engineers there?