NASA's Parker solar probe gets a "revolutionary" heat shield



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Prior to its launch in August, NASA's Parker Solar Probe – the mission to get closer to the Sun more than ever by a man-made object – has its "revolutionary" thermal shield permanently attached to the American spacecraft. The probe's heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System, or TPS – was reinstalled on the spacecraft on June 27, NASA said in a statement released on Thursday.

Reinstalling the Thermal Screen The Parker Solar Probe probe was designed for the first time in months. a region of the solar atmosphere.

With the help of its thermal shield, the orbit of the spacecraft will carry it to within four million miles of the extremely hot surface of the Sun, where it will collect data on the inner workings of the crown. 1965900 2] The eight-foot-diameter heat shield will protect everything in its shadow, the shadow that it projects onto the spacecraft, NASA said.

At the closest approach to the Sun, temperatures on the heat shield will reach 1,371 degrees Celsius, but the spacecraft and its instruments will be maintained at a relatively comfortable temperature of about 29.4 degrees Celsius. C.

The heat shield consists of two panels of carbon-carbon composite superheated sandwiching a light carbon foam 4.5 inches thick

The side of the heat shield facing the sun is also covered with a white coating specially formulated to reflect as much as possible the energy of the Sun away from the spacecraft.

Because the Parker Solar Probe moves so fast – 69, 2018 km per hour at its closest approach to the Sun, fast enough to travel from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, in about a second – the shield and the ship Space must be light to reach the necessary orbit.

Heat The shield itself weighs only about 72.5 kg, says NASA.

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