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One of the most recent spacecraft of humanity has been subjected to painful tests Monday night (November 5), not more than 24 million kilometers from the surface of our sun.
This probe is NASA 's Solar Parker solar probe, launched in August with a bold mission to study the star that shapes our lives. To do this, he runs a course of 24 loops close to the sun, the first of which reached what scientists call the perihelion – the nearest moment – Monday at 22:28. EST (6:32 GMT on November 6th).
But there will not be much to watch or listen to during the daring approach, even for the scientists and engineers who lead the mission. [The Greatest Missions to the Sun of All Time]
Throughout the few days surrounding the perihelion, the spaceship is essentially autonomous. Indeed, the sun is a light source of radio waves so powerful that it stifles the communications of the probe with the Earth.
Orbital diagram of the progress made to date by the Parker solar probe and planned trajectory of the spacecraft.
Credit: NASA / JHUAPL
And the spacecraft is not only responsible for taking measures independently during this time, it must also protect itself from the overwhelming heat of the sun. To do this, it will bend continuously to keep its thermal protection shield between the star and the instruments.
The first return of Parker Solar Probe on Earth will only be a beep, according to a statement from the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, which manages the spacecraft. It has a directory of four different options, one of which means that everything is fine. Once the spacecraft engineers hear this first beep, they will have a better idea of what to expect from the first delivery of detailed scientific data, scheduled for early December.
At that point, the probe will be well away from the sun as it prepares for its next orbit. It will reach two more perihelions in 2019, one in April and the other in September. Then, next December, he will complete the second of seven Venus flyovers, which progressively brings the trajectory of the spacecraft closer to the star.
During tonight's maneuver, the spacecraft will travel more than 213,000 km / h (343,000 km / h). (At the end of October, the Parker solar probe broke world records for speed and approach to the sun.)
As the Solaris solar probe mission of $ 1.5 billion unfolds over a seven-year period, each perihelion is getting closer to the surface of the sun, the spaceship finally dancing within 6 million kilometers of our star . These approaches will also become faster, with its final perihelia reaching 700,000 km / h (700,000 km / h).
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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