Page 28 - aruba-today-20180811

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 11 auguSt 2018
Red-hot voyage to sun will bring us closer to our star

By MARCIA DUNN very clever engineering
AP Aerospace Writer and construction have suc-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ceeded in making what
(AP) — A red-hot voyage looks like a very workable
to the sun is going to bring instrument."
us closer to our star than The spacecraft holds pho-
ever before. tos of Parker as well as a
NASA's Parker Solar Probe copy of his 1958 research
will be the first spacecraft paper on what he termed
to "touch" the sun, hurtling solar wind. Despite skep-
through the sizzling solar ticism, NASA's Mariner 2
atmosphere and coming spacecraft proved Parker
within just 3.8 million miles right in 1962.
(6 million kilometers) of the Also on board: more than 1
surface. million names of space fans
It's designed to take solar submitted to NASA this past
punishment like never be- spring.
fore, thanks to its revolu- It's a fast-paced mission,
tionary heat shield that's with the first Venus encoun-
capable of withstanding ter occurring less than two
2,500 degrees Fahrenheit months after liftoff, in early
(1,370 degrees Celsius). October, and the first brush
Liftoff is set for the pre- with the sun in November.
dawn hours of Saturday for In all, the spacecraft will
this first-of-its-kind mission to make 24 elongated laps
a star. around the sun, closer than
"The coolest, hottest mis- the orbit of Mercury, the
sion, baby, that's what it is," innermost planet. The re-
said Nicola Fox, the project cords will start falling with
scientist at Johns Hopkins This July 6, 2018 photo made available by NASA shows the Parker Solar Probe in a clean room at the first orbit, when the
University. Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., after the installation of its heat shield. Parker probe comes within
Roughly the size of a small Associated Press 15.5 million miles (25 million
car, Parker will get nearly kilometers) of the sun and
seven times closer to the billion mission to shed light surviving such a close solar to going from Washington, beats the current record
sun than previous space- not only on our own dy- encounter, while still be- D.C., to Philadelphia in a holder, NASA's former He-
craft. To snuggle up to the namic sun, but the billions ing light enough for flight, split second. Or Chicago to lios 2 spacecraft. Helios 2
sun, it will fly past Venus sev- of other yellow dwarf stars wasn't available until now. Beijing in under a minute. got within 27 million miles
en times over seven years. — and other types of stars Parker's 8-foot (2.4-meter) This is the first NASA space- (43 million kilometers) of the
Each flyby will provide an — out there in the Milky heat shield is just 4 ½ inch- craft to be named after sun in 1976.
orbit-shaping gravity boost, Way and beyond. While es (11 centimeters) thick. someone still alive. Fox puts it this way: If the
drawing it ever closer to the granting us life, the sun also Sandwiched between two Eugene Parker, 91, profes- sun and Earth were on op-
sun and straight into the co- has the power to disrupt carbon sheets is airy car- sor emeritus at the Univer- posite ends of a football
rona — the sun's outermost spacecraft in orbit, and bon foam. The front has sity of Chicago, predicted field, Mercury would be at
atmosphere. communications and elec- a custom white ceramic the existence of solar wind the sun's 35-yard line, Helios
The closer, the better for tronics on Earth. coating to reflect sunlight; 60 years ago. He plans be 2 at the 29-yard line and
figuring out why the coro- "This is where we live," said it's expected to glow cherry at Cape Canaveral for the the Parker probe at the
na is hundreds of times hot- NASA solar astrophysicist red when bombarded by launch. United Launch Alli- 4-yard line.
ter than the sun's surface. Alex Young. "We have to the extreme solar heat. ance's Delta IV Heavy rock- NASA's Messenger, which
Another mystery scientists understand and charac- Almost everything on the et is providing the muscle. orbited Mercury from 2011
hope to solve: What drives terize this place that we're spacecraft will be behind Parker got to inspect the to 2015, provided insight
the solar wind? That's the traveling through." this and thus in room-tem- spacecraft last fall. He said into the solar wind but was
steady, supersonic stream The project was proposed perature shade while duck- he's "holding my breath too away.
of charged particles blast- in 1958 to a brand-new ing through the jagged that everything goes well." "You know something excit-
ing off the corona and into NASA, and "60 years later, edges of the corona, with- "This is a journey into nev- ing is just around the bend,
space in all directions. and it's becoming a real- out so much as a blister on er-never land, you might but where you're sitting
"There are missions that are ity," said project manager its science instruments. say, where it's too hot for you can't see what that is,"
studying the solar wind, but Andy Driesman, also of The spacecraft will hit any sensible spacecraft Fox said. "So really the only
we're going to get to the Johns Hopkins , which de- 430,000 mph (690,000 kph) to function," Parker told way we can now do it is
birthplace," Fox said. signed and built the space- in the corona at closest ap- Johns Hopkins' Fox in a re- to do this daring mission to
Scientists expect the $1.5 craft. The technology for proach. That's equivalent cent interview. "But some plunge into the corona."
The Parker probe's final
three orbits — in 2024 and
2025 — will be the closest.
The spacecraft eventually
will run out of fuel and, no
longer able to keep its heat
shield pointed toward the
sun, will burn and break
apart — except perhaps
for the rugged heat shield.
"It's a pretty tough shield,"
said Fox.q