NASA's Parker Solar Probe Just Started Its First Skim Past the Sun

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has had a big week: on Monday (Oct. 29) it broke two world records and on Wednesday (Oct. 31) it began its first close pass over the sun.

That maneuver is the first of 24 planned science encounters with the sun, which will last until 2025. This time around, the spacecraft will reach its closest point to the sun on Nov. 5 at about 10:28 p.m. EST (0328 GMT on Nov. 6), according to NASA.

At that point in its voyage, the spacecraft will be just 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun and will be traveling at 213,200 mph (343,000 km/h).

During the flyby, the Parker Solar Probe will be unable to communicate with Earth because the sun produces such enormous amounts of radio waves that they will drown out the spacecraft's signals. But the probe is designed to take care of itself, autonomously troubleshooting problems and twisting to stay safe from the sun's overwhelming heat.

And all the while, the spacecraft's instruments will be working to crack the mysteries of the sun that powers our every moment here on Earth. Four different sets of instruments will study the structure of the star's outer atmosphere, which scientists call the corona. We may even get our first image from within that corona, thanks to a camera aboard the spacecraft that's already snapped an incredible picture of Earth during its journey.

There's just one catch: Because of the probe's alignment, scientists won't get the data from this week's observations for a few more weeks.

Parker Solar Probe Starts First Solar Encounter

On Oct 31, 2018, Parker Solar Probe began its first of 24 solar encounters. This period — which lasts until Nov. 11 — is the time during which the spacecraft is within 0.25 astronomical units, or 23.2 million miles, of the Sun’s center. Parker Solar Probe’s four suites of science instruments are on and collecting data throughout this phase, giving scientists their closest-yet look at this dynamic region of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

This solar encounter encompasses the first perihelion of the mission, the point at which Parker Solar Probe is closest to the Sun. Perihelion is expected at about 10:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 5. The spacecraft will come within 15 million miles of the Sun’s surface and clock in at a top speed of 213,200 miles per hour relative to the Sun — setting new records for both closest solar approach and top heliocentric speed by a spacecraft.

At perihelion, Parker Solar Probe will fly through material at about 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit — but because material in this region is so tenuous, it doesn’t influence the temperature of the spacecraft. However, the Sun’s intense radiation heats the Sun-facing side of the spacecraft’s heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, to about 820 F.

For several days around the Nov. 5 perihelion, Parker Solar Probe will be completely out of contact with Earth because of interference from the Sun’s overwhelming radio emissions.

Parker Solar Probe employs a host of autonomous systems to keep the spacecraft safe without guidance from Earth — including automatic retraction of the solar panels to regulate their temperature, attitude control using solar limb sensors that ensures all of the instruments remain in the heat shield’s shadow, and a sophisticated guidance and control system that keeps the spacecraft pointed correctly. This autonomy is key not only during no-contact phases around the 24 planned perihelia but also throughout the mission, when the round-trip light time — the time it takes for radio signals to go back and forth between Earth and Parker Solar Probe — can be up to 31 minutes.

During the solar encounter phase, Parker Solar Probe’s four instrument suites measure the properties of material directly within the Sun’s outer atmosphere. These observations, gathered closer to the Sun than ever before, will help scientists begin to answer outstanding questions about the Sun’s fundamental physics — including how particles and solar material are accelerated out into space at such high speeds and why the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, is so much hotter than the surface below.

Because of the spacecraft’s distance from Earth and position relative to the Sun, it will be several weeks after the end of the solar encounter before Parker Solar Probe begins transmitting this science data back to Earth.

http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=110

Related image

This will work until we can land a man on the sun.

Rep Jackson Lee is aggressively pushing for a manned-mission to the Sun. She believes we should be able to land a man, or woman, preferably a black one, on the Sun within the next 10 years.

Image result for etl freerepublic sheila jackson mars
Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat!)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
From Texas's 18th district

On a visit to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2005, Jackson Lee made embarrassing news by asking if the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong.[2]

Prior to the 110th Congress, Jackson Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100409095818/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Jackson_Lee

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