In Just One Week, NASA Will Launch a Spacecraft to “Touch the Sun”

Megalith

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Next week, NASA is launching their Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft destined to “touch to sun.” Engineers have armed the probe with a thick heat shield, made mostly of carbon, to protect the craft and its delicate instruments from the Sun’s extreme temperatures.

On its final close approach, in 2025, the Parker Solar Probe will get within 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — so close that it will actually fly through the star's incredibly hot atmosphere, called the corona, NASA officials have said. The spacecraft will survive the heat for so many years because of the powerful shield engineers have designed.
 
I was thinking they were actually going to get to the gaseous surface and was "there no way since Sol is unique amongst most every other star with an unusually hot Corona temp of about 1 million degrees".
 
They really need to explain more about how the heat shield was made. Did someone finally crack a way to build a 3d laminate of graphene that doesn't have terrible conductivity vertically through the stack?
 
Don't the North Koreans have a base on the sun? Why don't we just meet up with those rascals?

I am assuming this is an unmanned mission.

Thing is tho -- NK's guy landed on the dark side of the sun where it's cooler. We're going to be on the sunny side of the sun, hence why we need to go unmanned.








Yes, that was total sarcasm. :)
 
They really need to explain more about how the heat shield was made. Did someone finally crack a way to build a 3d laminate of graphene that doesn't have terrible conductivity vertically through the stack?

There is a video, if you click the link, they explain it somewhat.
 
So, the Jupiter 2 is launching, eh? (Well see who gets the reference.)
 
Eh they just said carbon front with a carbon foam behind it. Are they referring to http://www.cfoam.com/whatis/ ?

This seems to be the only real description I can find of the material; https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...shield-installed-on-nasa-s-parker-solar-probe

"Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield is made of two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core. To reflect as much of the Sun’s energy away from the spacecraft as possible, the Sun-facing side of the heat shield is also sprayed with a specially formulated white coating."
 
If they sent it at night it could get closer.

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[QUOTE="DejaWiz]"there no way since Sol is unique amongst most every other star with an unusually hot Corona temp of about 1 million degrees".[/QUOTE]
Interesting, do you have more info on this or a source?
 
I like science! But I can never remember if the earth is riding on the back of an elephant or a giant turtle.



Duh, we aren't going to the moon ...
Turtle. And he rides on the back of yet another turtle. It's turtles all the way down...
 
Wouldn't a solar eclipse be an ideal time? With the sun not shining any light or heat they could get really close to it.
 
being so "close" I wonder if the coronal mass ejections that it is also to study.. might screw with it
 
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