NASA's Parker solar probe shatters records to hit the sun

TTo touch the sun sounds like a crazy dream. But in a technical feat that responds to the 60-year-old recommendation to launch an investigation into our local star, NASA's Parker Solar Probe shows that dreams come true.

Built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the probe launched in August broke two records on Monday: first, setting the shortest distance a spacecraft has ever traveled from the sun, and secondly, reaching a speed higher than that of any other spacecraft in history.

The Parker solar probe was only 42.7 million kilometers away, as it reached the closest orbit to the sun – called perihelion – at 10:28. Monday evening, Eastern Time, traveling at an unprecedented speed of 213,200 miles at the time while gathering scientific data.

But this record is only the first in a long series of polls, as Johns Hopkins APL project manager Andrew Driesman explained in a video published with the news.

"Closer to the sun than any other spaceship"

"We will go closer to the sun than any other spaceship. We will not do it once, we will not do it twice. We will do it 24 times, and it's terrifying. "

At this first meeting, the car-sized probe pbaded 26.55 million miles from the sun's surface, which is already comparable to the previous record set by Helios 2 in 1976 to a little less than 27 million kilometers. Over the next seven years, the probe will use the gravity of Venus to move closer and closer. It is planned to dive 3.8 million kilometers from the surface by the end of the mission in 2025.

But at infernal temperatures and severe radiation, scientists are eager to study the magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles of the sun. The proximity of the sun places the Parker solar probe in the solar corona, the atmosphere around the sun reaching 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1,377 degrees Celsius), exceeding the temperature of the surface itself.

It's getting hot here

To defeat the heat, the spacecraft will protect its side exposed to the sun with a thermal shield called Thermal protection system. Its not very creative name conceals the heaviness of this component of the probe. The 160-pound shield, a 4.5-inch thick foam core located between a superheated carbon composite, has a heat capacity so high that it can withstand 820 degrees Fahrenheit while holding the instruments stored behind it at room temperature, safely.

Even with the thermal protection system, heat forces researchers to keep communication simple. On four different tones, one confirms that everything is fine, while the other three indicate different types of problems. However, during the days around the perihelion, radio emissions from the sun interrupt communications until the spacecraft can respond with a beep.

"We will not be able to have any more contact with the spacecraft during meetings. The only thing we will have is these sound signals, "says Sanae Kubota, fault management manager.

Using the data – the transmission of which takes about 30 minutes between the probe and the Earth – scientists seek to better understand space weather, such as solar winds. Although the sun is 92.96 million kilometers, space weather affects the instruments of astronauts and people on Earth by sending satellites, including GPS systems.

For the fastest spacecraft of all time, the scientific data collected by the probe can not arrive fast enough. Due to the orientation of the spacecraft towards the sun, scientists have to wait several weeks before the data can be sent back to Earth.