NASA's probe will "touch" the sun – and not melt



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  NASA's probe goes

It's absolutely great!

NASA will literally launch in a few weeks one of its most ambitious missions in space. Parker's solar probe will make several "buds" on the Sun's surface to almost "catch" it, and will thus be closer to our star than anyone else before.

The three lowest Parker orbits are at an altitude of about 6.1 million kilometers above the surface, inside the solar corona, where the temperature reaches millions of degrees Celsius
Clearly, he will need protection, and he is very skillfully arranged. But before that, we'll come back a little later, but for the moment we'll talk about the crazy heat.

It's hard to imagine how he can stay alive in such conditions – because the temperature of only 460 degrees Celsius on Venus Eighties

But NASA explains to us that there is a nuance between the actual temperature of an object and the heat radiation, since it greatly affects the heat transfer in the space. The temperature characterizes the speed and, therefore, the energy of the particle and the thermal radiation – how much energy it actually carries. In space, the particles can move at high speed, but little energy is transmitted because they are few in number. "Parker will pass through the solar corona which despite its high temperature has a fairly low density," says Susan Darling. – "It's easy to imagine an example of an oven and a saucepan with boiling water – in the oven, you can keep your hand a lot longer because the # As a result, compared to the direct surface of the sun, in the corona, the probe will collide with fewer particles and high heat. "

What does this mean with regard to thermal protection? The fact that it will have to withstand a temperature of about 1370 degrees Celsius to protect the contents.

This can not be achieved with the help of amazing technology. The probe shield is a particular "sandwich" of two re-carbonated carbon-carbon composite plates, between which 11.5 centimeters of carbon foam, a diameter of 2.4 meters and a total weight of only 72.5 kilograms. The side facing the Sun is painted white with a ceramic-based paint to reflect the maximum amount of thermal radiation.

And striking – the temperature behind the shield will be only 30 degrees Celsius

All tools will be outside the protected area, made of refractory materials. For example, the Faraday Cylinder, through which the device will determine the solar wind load and intensity, titanium alloy of cirkonololabdenium (melting temperature of about 2350 degrees Celsius), electrostatic plates tungsten (3422 degrees), and all wiring will be in niobium

Of course, Parker will maintain an orientation in the space in such a way that a more delicate equipment does not hit the glittering sun rays, and the solar panels will be cleaned behind the shield to prevent overheating. In addition, the probe is equipped with a liquid cooling system for deionized water.

Without a doubt, in the "stuffing" of the device a lot of other unusual engineering solutions. Well, wait not to wait for the new data that we will bring to Parker on the Sun, its crazy atmosphere and its crazy "winds".

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