Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 13 august 2018

‘Touch the sun’: NASA spacecraft hurtles toward our star

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
— Embarking on a mission
that scientists have been
dreaming of since the Sput-
nik era, a NASA spacecraft
hurtled Sunday toward the
sun on a quest to unlock
some of its mysteries by
getting closer than any ob-
ject sent before.
If all goes well, the Parker
Solar Probe will fly straight
through the wispy edges of
the sun’s corona, or outer
atmosphere, in Novem-
ber. In the years ahead, it
will gradually get within 3.8
million miles (6 million kilo-
meters) of the surface, its
instruments protected from
the extreme heat and ra-
diation by a revolutionary
new carbon heat shield
and other high-tech wiz-
ardry. Altogether, the Park-
er probe will make 24 close
approaches to our star dur-
ing the seven-year, $1.5 bil- Parker Solar Probe on a ULA Delta IV Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Sunday,
lion journey. Aug. 12, 2018.
“Wow, here we go. We’re in Associated Press
for some learning over the stage, to get the Parker er said on NASA TV. lites and astronauts in orbit, mission’s derring-do.
next several years,” said Eu- probe — the size of a small Among the mysteries sci- along with the power grids “To me, it’s still mind-blow-
gene Parker, the 91-year- car and well under a ton entists hope to solve: Why so vital to today’s technolo- ing,” she said. “Even I still
old astrophysicist for whom — racing toward the sun, is the corona hundreds of gy-dependent society, said go, ‘Really? We’re doing
the spacecraft is named. It 93 million miles (150 million times hotter than the sur- Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s that?’”
was Parker who accurately kilometers) from Earth. face, which is 10,000 de- science mission chief. The 8-foot (2.4-meter) heat
theorized 60 years ago the A Saturday morning launch grees Fahrenheit (5,500 de- Parker, the probe, will start shield will serve as an um-
existence of solar wind — attempt was foiled by last- grees Celsius)? And why is shattering records this fall. brella that will shade the
the supersonic stream of minute technical trouble. the sun’s atmosphere con- On its very first brush with spacecraft’s scientific in-
charged particles blasting But Sunday gave way to tinually expanding and ac- the sun, it will come within struments, with on-board
off the sun and coursing complete success. celerating, as Parker theo- 15.5 million miles (25 million sensors adjusting the pro-
through space, sometimes It was the first rocket launch rized in 1958? kilometers), easily beating tective cover as necessary
wreaking havoc on electri- ever witnessed by Parker, “The only way we can do the current record of 27 mil- so that nothing gets fried.
cal systems on Earth. a retired University of Chi- that is to finally go up and lion miles (43 million kilome- A mission to get up close
This is the first time NASA has cago professor. He said it touch the sun,” said project ters) set by NASA’s Helios 2 and personal with our
named a spacecraft after was like looking at photos scientist Nicola Fox of Johns spacecraft in 1976. star has been on NASA’s
a living person. of the Taj Mahal for years Hopkins University. “We’ve By the time Parker gets to books since 1958. The trick
As Parker and thousands of and then beholding the looked at it. We’ve stud- its 22nd, 23rd and 24th or- was making the space-
others watched, a Delta IV real thing in India. ied it from missions that are bits of the sun in 2024 and craft compact and light
Heavy rocket carried the “I really have to turn from close in, even as close as 2025, it will be even deeper enough to travel at incred-
probe aloft, thundering into biting my nails in getting it the planet Mercury. But we into the corona and trav- ible speeds and durable
the clear, star-studded sky launched, to thinking about have to go there.” eling at a record 430,000 enough to withstand the
on three pillars of fire that lit all the interesting things A better understanding of mph (690,000 kilometers punishing environment.
up the middle-of-the-night which I don’t know yet and the sun’s life-giving and per hour). Nothing from “We’ve had to wait so long
darkness. which will be made clear, I sometimes violent nature planet Earth has ever gone for our technology to catch
NASA needed the mighty assume, over the next five could also enable earth- that fast. Even Fox has dif- up with our dreams,” Fox
23-story rocket, plus a third or six or seven years,” Park- lings to better protect satel- ficulty comprehending the said.q