NASA plans to use the spacecraft mission as a “monumental achievement for humanity equivalent to the moon landing.”
NASA’s spacecraft is scheduled to travel 3.8 million miles this year, passing through the sun’s molten surface in an attempt to “land on a star” at a speed of 435,000 mph. This will mark the probe’s closest-ever landing and provide the “first-ever sampling of a star’s atmosphere.”
Scientist Nour Raouafi told the BBC that the “Parker Solar Probe” is the closest artificial object has ever come near the sun’s surface, saying, “This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity.” This is comparable to the 1969 Moon landing.”
In essence, we are about to touch down on a star,” he said. Given that it will be the closest craft in human history to the sun by a factor of seven.
In addition to being hailed as “the first spacecraft to touch the sun” by the public in 2018, the Parker Probe has shown to be successful thus far. While breaking speed and distance records, it also gathered vital data about the sun’s upper atmosphere solar wind.
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Scientists anticipate that by collecting measurements and photos from the probe, they will be able to comprehend solar wind phenomena better.
“As we speed closer and closer to the solar surface, we will learn more about the properties of the Sun itself,” Raouafi stated in a 2013 statement, “but that data will also significantly improve our knowledge of space weather and our ability to live and work in space.”
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August 2018 saw the manufacturing of the $1.5 billion galaxy device by Applied Physics Laboratory. Since Parker Solar was built to resist harsh environments and temperature changes for the mission, a significant portion of the probe’s cost is reportedly related to its material composition, which prevents it from melting in the sun’s heat. The secret is in its unique heat shield and self-contained mechanism that lets the coronal material “touch” the spacecraft while also shielding it from the Sun’s strong light emissions.
As for what they ‘don’t know’ from the trip, NASA’s chief scientist, Dr. Nicky Fox, told the BBC that “we’ll be looking for waves in the solar wind associated with the heating.”
“I suspect we’ll sense lots of different types of waves which would point to a mix of processes that people have been arguing over for years,” she said.
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