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Illustration of Parker sun probe approaching the sun. Credit: NASA / APL Johns Hopkins / Steve Gribben
The Parker solar probe is alive and well after flying over the sun just 15 million kilometers from the surface of our star. It is much closer to all spacecraft – the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 and defeated by Parker on October 29 – and this maneuver exposed him to intense heat and solar radiation in a complex environment solar wind.
"Parker Solar Probe was designed to take care of itself and its valuable payload during this close-up approach, without any control from us on Earth – and now we know that it has succeeded," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Assistant Administrator of Science Mission Directorate of NASA at the agency. headquarters in Washington. "Parker is the culmination of six decades of scientific advancements.We have just realized the first visit of humanity to our star, which will have implications not only on Earth, but also for a deeper understanding of our universe."
Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory received the probe status tag at 4:46 PM. EST on November 7, 2018. The beacon indicates status "A" – the best of four possible status signals, which means that Parker Solar Probe works properly with all instruments being run and collects scientific data and , in case of minor problem, they were solved autonomously by the spacecraft.
On November 5, at the closest approach to perihelion, the Parker solar probe reached a top speed of 213,200 mph, setting a new speed record for spacecraft. In addition to new records for the closest approach to the sun, Parker Solar Probe will repeatedly record its own speed record as its orbit approaches the star and as the spacecraft will move faster and faster to perihelion.
Members of the Parker Solar Probe Mission Team celebrate on November 7, 2018, after receiving a tag indicating that the spacecraft is in good health after its first perihelion. Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman
At this distance, the intense sunlight heated the Parker Solar Probe heat shield thermal shield at about 820 degrees Fahrenheit, known as the thermal protection system. This temperature will rise to 2500 F as the spacecraft approaches closer to the sun – but all the while, the instruments and systems of the spacecraft protected by the heat shield are generally preserved in the mid-1980s. .
Parker Solar Probe's first phase of solar encounter began on October 31 and the probe will continue to collect scientific data until the end of the solar encounter phase on November 11. Several weeks after the end of the solar encounter phase before science the data begins to approach the Earth.
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