Posted on 12/27/2024 4:41:54 PM PST by Alas Babylon!
A Nasa spacecraft is safe and “in good health” after making the closest-ever approach to the sun, the space agency has revealed.
The Parker solar probe (PSP) is “operating normally” after the flyby which saw it come within 3.8 million miles of the surface of our nearest star on Christmas Eve.
According to Nasa, it endured potential temperatures of 982C while travelling at 430,000mph – the equivalent of flying from London to New York in less than 30 seconds.
Its mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland received the signal earlier than expected, on the evening of Boxing Day.
However, the scientists will have to wait until Jan 1 to receive “detailed” data about the probe’s condition and experiences.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
It didn’t burn up because they went in winter
No, the Aggie engineers designed it to fly by at night.
AOC was right
Shades of Icarus.
But we still have two astronauts stuck in space.
Also, they passed around the dark side.
A balmy 1800f.
Wow, 1,800 F. Hard to keep the solder on printed circuit boards from liquifying at those temps. Also hard to run a refrigeration system when your heat sink is at 1,800 F. How in the world did the engineers thermally protect components and keep them from melting.
That’s quite an achievement.
Potential temperatures, they said
I’m guessing the probe sat behind a mirror shield that reflected most of the solar energy.
Did the craft discover whether there is beer on the sun?
Yes, but not in a liquid form.
It’s 100% gas.
It's a good thing NASA isn't in Australia, mate.
...and at night, of course.
Congratulations NASA! Now can you get off your worthless behinds and bring those two stranded astronauts back to Earth?
It’s not “safe” it’s intact. The probability of it hurting anyone became immeasurably small after launch.
They went at night
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.