NASA's mission to the Sun (Parker Solar Probe)

[Kyng]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45058911

US space agency Nasa has delayed its mission to send a satellite closer to the Sun than any before.

The Parker Solar Probe was set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday, but last-minute investigations have delayed it for 24 hours.

It is now scheduled to blast off - on board the mammoth Delta-IV Heavy rocket - on Sunday morning.

The probe is set to become the fastest-moving manmade object in history.

The rocket was on the launch pad when the countdown clock was interrupted, as officials investigated an alarm.
 

---

This is certainly a very ambitious project. A shame about the launch being aborted - but, given how much effort and money has probably been invested in this, I guess they really ought to make sure they get it right!

[Detective Osprey]

Oh no! It was aborted? Ugh. I hope they can relaunch it!

Can’t wait to learn more of our Sun’s secrets.

[Pinky]

Good to see it's been relaunced. Will be interesting to see what information it could bring back for us.

[Kyng]

Yep, it's launched successfully : 
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018...of-the-sun

Here's a video, in case anyone's interested: 


Good luck to it on the rest of its mission !

[Kyng]

Wow, this topic is badly out of date . So, I'll provide a couple of updates on how this mission has been doing.

First of all, in December 2021, NASA announced that the spacecraft had touched the Sun, making it the first probe to do so. (Of course, the Sun is a ball of gas which lacks a solid surface, so it's more like "entering the Sun's atmosphere" than "touching the edge of the Sun", but hopefully you know what I mean ):

https://scitechdaily.com/parker-solar-pr...d-the-sun/

And then, just last week, they made another announcement. While it was on its way to the Sun, the probe took the first visible-light images of Venus from space (our only other visible-light images of the planet are the ones that the Venera probes took from the planet's surface):



All in all, it sounds like it's been quite a successful mission so far !

[Kyng]

This probe has just become the fastest-ever man-made object - at 394,736 mph (635,266 km/h):

https://www.livescience.com/space/nasas-...ade-object

That's quite a mind-boggling speed... it's fast enough to circumnavigate the Earth in a little over six minutes !

[ZandraJoi]

It's not just being the fastest but how they can actually measure the fastest! The ISS goes around the Earth every 90-92 minutes. How's that for perspective!

[Kyng]

It's not just being the fastest but how they can actually measure the fastest! The ISS goes around the Earth every 90-92 minutes. How's that for perspective!

Indeed - that sounds quite dizzying in and of itself, but it's a snail's pace compared to this probe!

(And as fast as the Parker Solar Probe is, it's still not even 1/1,000 of the speed of light... so, there's plenty of room to get faster .

[Kyng]

This probe is still flying close the the Sun's 'surface' every three months - and it's set to make its closest pass in December 2024 (it's been using Venus's orbit to get slightly closer each time, but after next year, it'll no longer be able to do that):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67837161

Let's just hope everything's working correctly when it makes that fly-by!

[Kyng]

This probe is about to make its closest-ever approach to the Sun - venturing into its outer atmosphere:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q7lnyw25wo

Let's hope the probe survives the trip!