Solar Probe Plus – Delta IV H/Star-48BV – Canaveral SLC-37B – 12.08.2018 в 07:31 UTC

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ULA‏Verified account @ulalaunch 1h ago

Ahead of yesterday's @VP visit to our ULA facilities, @usairforce Senior Airman Velasquez and his military #workingdog cleared our Horizontal Integration Facility. The #DeltaIV Heavy that will launch @ParkerSunProbe in the background. #NextFrontier

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В изложении российских журналистов

 http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/news/35837/
07.03.2018НАСА собирает имена желающих отправиться в "полет к Солнцу"
Зонд Parker Solar Probe, запуск которого состоится в конце июля этого года, отправится на рандеву с Солнцем в компании с табличкой, на которой будут записаны имена любых добровольцев, желающих помочь ему раскрыть тайны жизни светила, сообщает НАСА.

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"Наш зонд можно в самом прямом смысле назвать самой быстрой, горячей и крутой миссией на свете. Этот удивительный космический корабль поможет нам раскрыть огромное количество тайн Солнца и понять, как работают его недра, что раньше нам никак не удавалось узнать", — заявила Никола Фокс (Nicola Fox), научный руководитель миссии из университета Джона Гопкинса в Балтиморе (США).
По текущим планам научной команды миссии, PSP пролетит через корону светила 24 раза, постепенно сближаясь с поверхностью Солнца. Для того, чтобы зонд не сгорел во время первого такого рандеву, он оборудован огромным тепловым экраном из специального углепластикового материала, отражающего 99% света и тепла, чья толщина составляет 11 сантиметров, а длина и ширина – несколько метров.
Несмотря на столь внушительную защиту, корпус зонд будет разогреваться до температур, составляющих примерно 1500 градусов Кельвина, и подвергаться действию мощного потока радиации, превышающего фон на Земле почти в 500 раз.

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Как и при отправке многих других миссий, НАСА прикрепит к корпусу Parker Solar Probe миниатюрный кремниевый чип, на чьей поверхности будут выгравированы имена всех людей, пожелавших отправиться вместе с зондом в путешествие к поверхности Солнца. Для этого нужно заполнить анкету на сайте космического агентства до конца апреля этого года, передает РИА Новости.

А.Ж.

Что за помощь добровольцев, что за табличка с выгравировкой на поверхности кремниевого чипа    

Сбор персональных данных тут http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/Name-to-Sun/ 

Нужно Ф И и емайл, даже страну сейчас не спросили.... реклама сайта миссии http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/ , а он хорош


Оригинал новости https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/public-invited-to-come-aboard-nasa-s-first-mission-to-touch-the-sun

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/03/26/parker-solar-probe-completes-space-environment-testing/

Parker Solar Probe Completes Space Environment Testing

Sarah Frazier
Posted Mar 26, 2018 at 3:01 pm

Parker Solar Probe has completed its space environment testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and was lifted out of the thermal vacuum chamber on March 24, 2018, after just over two months inside.

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Members of the Parker Solar Probe team from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, monitor the progress of the spacecraft as it is lifted from the Space Environment Simulator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lowered to the custom platform visible in the foreground. The spacecraft has spent eight weeks undergoing space environment testing in the thermal vacuum chamber before being lifted out on March 24, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Since January, Parker Solar Probe underwent a series of tests inside NASA Goddard's large thermal vacuum chamber – officially called the Space Environment Simulator – that mimicked the conditions the spacecraft will face in space throughout its seven-year mission. After initially testing the spacecraft's functions under hot and cold extremes, engineers have spent the past month slowly cycling the temperatures in the thermal vacuum chamber back and forth between hot and cold, making sure Parker Solar Probe's systems and components operate properly. This thermal cycling is similar to the conditions the spacecraft will experience as it completes 24 close approaches to the Sun over its seven-year mission.


Parker Solar Probe is lifted out of the Space Environment Simulator at NASA Goddard on March 24, 2018. The spacecraft has spent eight weeks undergoing space environment testing in the thermal vacuum chamber. After about seven more days of testing outside the chamber, Parker Solar Probe will travel to Florida for a scheduled launch on July 31, 2018, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

"Successfully completing this final round of space environment testing is critical, and the team has created an exceptional spacecraft," said Andy Driesman, Parker Solar Probe program manager from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, which designed, built, and will manage the mission for NASA. "We now know the spacecraft and systems are able to operate in space, and that Parker Solar Probe is ready to embark on this historic mission."


NASA's Parker Solar Probe is wheeled into a clean room at NASA Goddard on March 24, 2018, after successfully completing space environment testing to verify the spacecraft is ready for operations in space. The probe will undergo about seven more days of testing outside the chamber, then travel to Florida for a scheduled launch on July 31, 2018, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

After undergoing final preparations, the spacecraft will leave NASA Goddard and travel to Florida this spring. Once in Florida, Parker Solar Probe will go through its final integration and testing at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville before launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida this summer. Parker Solar Probe's launch window opens on July 31, 2018.

Download these photos and more in HD formats from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

By Justyna Surowiec

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Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/03/29/second-stage-attached-to-delta-iv-heavy-booster-for-parker-solar-probe-mission/

Second Stage Attached to Delta IV Heavy Booster for Parker Solar Probe Mission

Linda Herridge
Posted Mar 29, 2018 at 4:39 pm



The second stage of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy is mated to the common booster core inside the Horizontal Integration Facility near Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The Delta IV Heavy will launch NASA's upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission in July 2018. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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http://tass.ru/kosmos/5103588

Американский зонд для исследования Солнца доставлен к космодрому на мысе Канаверал
ВАШИНГТОН, 7 апреля. /Корр. ТАСС Дмитрий Кирсанов/. Американская автоматическая межпланетная станция, предназначенная для исследования Солнца, переброшена к космодрому на мысе Канаверал (штат Флорида), с которого она должна стартовать уже летом. Об этом сообщило в пятницу Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA).
Последние приготовления
В ночь со 2 на 3 апреля зонд был перевезен из входящего в структуру NASA Центра космических полетов имени Годдарда в Гринбелте (штат Мэриленд) на расположенную поблизости базу ВВС и ВМС США Эндрюс. Оттуда аппарат на борту военно-транспортного самолета C-17 доставили утром во вторник на сборочное предприятие компании Astrotech Space Operations, соседствующее с космодромом на мысе Канаверал. В среду зонд извлекли из контейнера, в котором он перебрасывался из Мэриленда во Флориду.
На объекте фирмы Astrotech Space Operations у космодрома на мысе Канаверал станция, по свидетельству сотрудников NASA, пройдет в оставшиеся до старта месяцы последние всеобъемлющие испытания.
Кроме того, там ее "упакуют" в специальное термозащитное покрытие, а затем заправят топливом, укроют носовым обтекателем и установят на тяжелую ракету-носитель Delta IV. На днях на космодроме на мысе Канаверал уже состыковали первую и вторую ступень той ракеты, которой и предстоит вывести зонд в космос.
Стартовое окно открывается 31 июля, а закрывается 19 августа.
В условиях, "приближенных к боевым"
С января на протяжении почти двух месяцев станцию подвергали температурным испытаниях в вакууме. Эти тесты шли в Центре имени Годдарда, где зонд, который по размерам сопоставим с небольшим автомобилем, поместили в вакуумную камеру высотой примерно 12 м.
Инженеры сначала проверяли, выдерживают ли зонд и его "начинка" низкую температуру - до минус 292 градусов Фаренгейта (минус 180 Цельсия). Затем ее постепенно увеличивали, чтобы посмотреть, как на станцию воздействует экстремально высокая температура. Потом специалисты чередовали такой перепад температур, имитируя условия полета в космическом пространстве.
Детали миссии

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Планируется, что в ноябре зонд приблизится к Солнцу на расстояние в 6,4 млн км. Это означает, что аппарат будет находиться в пределах короны Солнца, то есть внешних слоев его атмосферы, где температура может достигать 500 тыс. кельвинов (около 500 тыс. градусов по Цельсию) и даже нескольких миллионов кельвинов.
По замыслу американских ученых, в период по июнь 2025 года зонд совершит 24 витка по орбите вокруг Солнца, разгоняясь до скорости 724 тыс. км в час. На каждый такой виток у него будет уходить 88 дней.
На борту аппарата стоимостью порядка $1,5 млрд будет находиться четыре комплекта научных инструментов. При помощи этой аппаратуры специалисты рассчитывают, в частности, осуществить различные измерения солнечной радиации. Наряду с этим зонд должен будет передать фотоснимки, которые станут первыми, сделанными в пределах солнечной короны. Оборудование зонда будет защищено оболочкой из углепластика толщиной 11,43 см, позволяющей выдержать температуру до примерно 1,4 тыс. градусов по Цельсию.
Как признала в июне прошлого года координатор проекта Никола Фокс, его удалось реализовать только теперь благодаря появлению новых материалов, использованных в первую очередь при создании термостойкого щита зонда. Станция получит и новые панели солнечных батарей, уточнила Фокс. "Мы наконец прикоснемся к Солнцу", - сказала специалист. По ее выражению, зонд поможет ученым понять, "как работает Солнце".

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Значение проекта

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NASA обещает, что миссия произведет революцию в представлении человека о процессах, протекающих на Солнце. Претворение в жизнь намеченных планов позволит внести "фундаментальный вклад" в понимание причин "нагревания солнечной короны", а также возникновения солнечного ветра (потока ионизированных частиц, истекающего из солнечной короны) и "ответить на критически важные вопросы в гелиофизике, которые уже на протяжении нескольких десятилетий имеют высший приоритет", убеждено NASA. Информация с борта аппарата, по мнению его специалистов, будет иметь огромную ценность и с точки зрения подготовки дальнейших пилотируемых полетов за пределы Земли, поскольку позволит прогнозировать "радиационную обстановку, в которой предстоит работать и жить будущим покорителям космоса".
Зонд назван в честь выдающегося американского астрофизика Юджина Паркера, которому минувшим летом исполнилось 90 лет. Несмотря на почтенный возраст, он до сих пор ведет научную деятельность в Университете Чикаго (штат Иллинойс).
Паркер стал одним из первых в мире специалистов, занимавшихся исследованиями солнечного ветра. С 1967 года он является членом Национальной академии наук США.
Предполагается, что зонд Паркера подлетит в семь раз ближе к Солнцу, чем какой-либо другой из космических аппаратов, ранее отправлявшихся человеком.

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NASA Goddard‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAGoddard 20 ч. назад

Flown by @usairforce, the custom shipping container holding @NASASun's Parker #SolarProbe arrived in Florida on April 3 in advance of the mission's launch to the Sun on July 31 fr om @NASAKennedy. http://go.nasa.gov/2JsIXmi 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-mission-to-touch-the-sun-arrives-in-the-sunshine-state

April 6, 2018

NASA's Mission to Touch the Sun Arrives in the Sunshine State

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has arrived in Florida to begin final preparations for its launch to the Sun, scheduled for July 31, 2018.

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The custom shipping container holding NASA's Parker Solar Probe is prepared for unloading fr om the C-17 of the United States Air Force's 436th Airlift Wing after landing at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville, Florida, on the morning of April 3, 2018.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

In the middle of the night on April 2, the spacecraft was driven from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to nearby Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. From there, it was flown by the United States Air Force's 436th Airlift Wing to Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville, Florida, wh ere it arrived at 10:40 a.m. EDT. It was then transported a short distance to Astrotech Space Operations, also in Titusville, wh ere it will continue testing, and eventually undergo final assembly and mating to the third stage of the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.


After unloading, the spacecraft was taken to Astrotech Space Operations, also in Titusville, for pre-launch testing and preparations.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Parker Solar Probe is humanity's first mission to the Sun. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone. While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal fundamental science behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring of material from the Sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects space weather near Earth.

"Parker Solar Probe and the team received a smooth ride from the Air Force C-17 crew from the 436th," said Andy Driesman, Parker Solar Probe project manager from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. "This is the second most important flight Parker Solar Probe will make, and we're excited to be safely in Florida and continuing pre-launch work on the spacecraft."

At Astrotech, Parker Solar Probe was taken to a clean room and removed from its protective shipping container on Wednesday, April 4. The spacecraft then began a series of tests to verify that it had safely made the journey to Florida. For the next several months, the spacecraft will undergo comprehensive testing; just prior to being fueled, one of the most critical elements of the spacecraft, the thermal protection system (TPS), or heat shield, will be installed. The TPS is the breakthrough technology that will allow Parker Solar Probe to survive the temperatures in the Sun's corona, just 3.8 million miles from the surface of our star.

"There are many milestones to come for Parker Solar Probe and the amazing team of men and women who have worked so diligently to make this mission a reality," said Driesman. "The installation of the TPS will be our final major step before encapsulation and integration onto the launch vehicle."

Parker Solar Probe will be launched from Launch Complex-37 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The two-hour launch window opens at approximately 4 a.m. EDT on July 31, 2018, and is repeated each day (at slightly earlier times) through Aug. 19.



Throughout its seven-year mission, Parker Solar Probe will explore the Sun's outer atmosphere and make critical observations to answer decades-old questions about the physics of stars. Its data will also be useful in improving forecasts of major eruptions on the Sun and the subsequent space weather events that impact technology on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space. The mission is named for University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Eugene N. Parker, whose profound insights into solar physics and processes have guided the discipline. It is the first NASA mission named for a living individual.


NASA's Parker Solar Probe is wheeled into position in a clean room at Astrotech Space Operations.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. Living With a Star is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Johns Hopkins APL designed, built and manages the mission for NASA. Instrument teams are led by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.; Princeton University in New Jersey; and the Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is the provider of the Delta IV launch service for Parker Solar Probe. NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the agency's efforts to commercially provide rockets for specific missions. LSP also directs the overall launch effort including overseeing development and integration of the rocket with the spacecraft.

Media Contacts

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Geoff Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu

Karen Fox
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-6284
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov

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Last Updated: April 6, 2018
Editor: Rob Garner

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Parker Solar Probe Arrives in Florida

JHU Applied Physics Laboratory

Опубликовано: 9 апр. 2018 г.

Parker Solar Probe project scientist Nicky Fox of Johns Hopkins APL describes the spacecraft's journey to Florida and arrival at Astrotech Space Operations, the probe's new home before a scheduled launch on July 31, 2018 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

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Parker Solar Probe at SXSW 2018: "Touch the Sun: NASA's First Mission to Our Star"

JHU Applied Physics Laboratory

Опубликовано: 12 апр. 2018 г.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe, launching in 2018, will fly through the Sun's corona and will revolutionize our understanding of our star. For more than half a century, scientists have wanted to send a mission to the Sun, but no spacecraft could withstand the intense heat... until now.

Project scientist Nicola Fox and Lead Thermal Protection System Engineer Elizabeth Congdon, both of Johns Hopkins APL, discuss how the mission's science will unlock many mysteries about stars like our Sun, and explain the revolutionary heat shield that makes the mission possible.

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. Living With a Star is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Johns Hopkins APL designed, built, and manages the mission for NASA.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/04/24/heat-shield-arrives-in-florida/

Heat Shield Arrives in Florida

Sarah Frazier
Posted Apr 24, 2018 at 2:00 pm

The Thermal Protection System — also known as the heat shield — for NASA's Parker Solar Probe arrived in Titusville, Florida, on April 18, 2018, bringing it one step closer to reuniting with the spacecraft that will be the first to "touch" the Sun.

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Parker Solar Probe's heat shield – encased in its metal shipping container – is reunited with the spacecraft – seen in the background – at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, on April 18, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft arrived at Astrotech Space Operations two weeks prior, on April 3, to complete final testing. Though the spacecraft was flown by the Air Force's 436th Airlift Wing, the Thermal Protection System, or TPS, traveled on a flatbed truck, securely encased in a metal shipping container during its road trip to the Sunshine State. After setting off on a rainy Monday morning fr om Maryland, it was greeted with Florida's balmy heat on Wednesday afternoon at Astrotech, where it will eventually be reattached to the spacecraft before launch in late July.


Parker Solar Probe's heat shield arrives in Florida on April 18, 2018, and is unloaded at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, wh ere it will eventually be reattached to the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft before launch in late July. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

The innovative TPS will be the one barrier shielding the spacecraft and its instruments from the intense heat of the Sun. Made of carbon-carbon composite and stretching approximately eight feet wide, the TPS will withstand temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit while keeping the spacecraft and instruments at a comparatively comfortable 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat shield has a plasma-sprayed white surface that will reflect the intense heat energy of the Sun's corona away from the spacecraft.

By Justyna Surowiec

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Download these images in HD formats from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.


Parker Solar Probe's heat shield, encased in a shipping container, is covered up for a rainy day of travel from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, on April 16, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Wong


Parker Solar Probe's heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System – departs from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, on April 16, 2018. The heat shield traveled to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, on the flatbed of a truck, safely protected from the elements in its metal shipping container. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Wong

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/04/26/parker-solar-probes-launch-vehicle-rises-at-space-launch-complex-37/

Parker Solar Probe's Launch Vehicle Rises at Space Launch Complex 37

Sarah Frazier
Posted Apr 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm


The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy that will carry Parker Solar Probe is raised at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 17, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

On the morning of Tuesday, April 17, 2018, crews from United Launch Alliance raised the 170-foot tall Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle – the largest and most powerful rocket currently used by NASA – at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This Delta IV Heavy will carry Parker Solar Probe, humanity's first mission to the Sun's corona, on its journey to explore the Sun's atmosphere and the solar wind. Launch is scheduled for approximately 4 a.m. EDT on July 31, 2018.

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The launch vehicle consists of three Common Booster Cores, with a second stage on the center core; the encapsulated spacecraft, is scheduled to arrive in early July for integration onto the rocket. The spacecraft is now at Astrotech Space Operations in nearby Titusville undergoing final integration and testing. Parker Solar Probe will be the fastest human-made object in the solar system, traveling at speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (700,000 kilometers per hour).

By Geoff Brown

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Download these photos in HD formats from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman


Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/27/ulas-heavy-lifter-rolled-out-for-solar-probe-launch/

ULA's heavy-lifter rolled out for solar probe launch
April 27, 2018 | Stephen Clark


The Delta 4-Heavy rocket slated to launch NASA's Parker Solar Probe was lifted vertical on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on April 17, one day after it rolled to the pad fr om a nearby horizontal integration hangar. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Gearing up for a predawn blastoff July 31, launch crews have positioned a Delta 4-Heavy rocket in the starting blocks on a seaside launch complex at Cape Canaveral as engineers inside a tightly-controlled clean room a few miles away put the final touches on a NASA probe that will travel closer to the sun than any mission before.

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The mission's key components were on the move earlier this month, with the Parker Solar Probe's shipment fr om the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to Florida's Space Coast on April 3. After arriving in Florida aboard a U.S. Air Force cargo plane, the spacecraft was trucked to a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville.

Meanwhile, technicians inside the Delta 4 rocket's assembled the launcher's three first stage booster cores since their arrival fr om United Launch Alliance's factory in Decatur, Alabama, on two shipments aboard the company's Mariner rocket transport ship last July and August. Workers connected the Delta 4-Heavy's upper stage in early March, then transferred the launcher to Cape Canaveral's Complex 37B launch pad April 16.

Hydraulic lifts hoisted the rocket vertical inside the launch pad's mobile gantry April 17, beginning checkouts that will include several launch day rehearsals, including a fueling test, in the coming months.


The Delta 4-Heavy's three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engines are seen in this image before the rocket was lifted vertical April 17. Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Liftoff is scheduled for July 31 during a two-hour launch window that opens at approximately 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT).

Named for Eugene Parker, the scientist who predicted in 1958 the influence of the solar wind, the Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any past mission, reaching a point in December 2024 as close as 3.8 million miles — less than 6.2 million kilometers — from the sun's visible surface, also known as the photosphere.

The Helios 2 spacecraft, a joint project by NASA and the German space agency, is the current record-holder. It flew 27 million miles — 43.4 million kilometers — from the sun in April 1976.

That record will be shattered early in Parker Solar Probe's mission. With the help of a big boost from the Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the most powerful launcher currently certified to carry NASA missions into space, and an extra impulse from a solid-fueled Star 48BV upper stage provided by Orbital ATK, the 1,500-pound (685-kilogram) Parker Solar Probe will reach Venus on Sept. 28 for a flyby that will use the planet's gravity to redirect the spacecraft's orbit inside the orbit of Mercury.

The big rocket, upper stage and repeated encounters with Venus are required to nudge Parker Solar Probe closer to the sun, effectively slowing the spacecraft from its initial 18-mile-perscond speed — relatively to the sun — at Earth's orbit to allow solar gravity to pull it closer.

"Since we're going so close to the sun, we have to lose a lot of energy, a lot of angular momentum, associated with the Earth's orbit," said Jim Kinnison, Parker Solar Probe's mission system engineer, in an interview with Spaceflight Now. "To do that, we need a really big rocket that can provide us with a high (escape velocity). The Delta 4-Heavy was the best we could get, but even that wasn't sufficient. We still need a third stage to provide even more of a boost for us. The third stage will do that, but we're also targeting Venus for gravity assists to lose even more."

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket can carry heavier cargo than the Delta 4-Heavy, but the launcher must complete multiple successful flights before NASA will allow it to dispatch the agency's most expensive science probes. At the time of NASA's selection of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket for the Parker Solar Probe mission in early 2015, the Falcon Heavy was still three years from its first test flight.

Parker Solar Probe will reach its first perihelion — or close-up solar flyby — on Nov. 1 at a distance of around 15 million miles (24.1 million kilometers).

Six more flybys with Venus will crank the probe closer to the sun over the course of 24 orbits through 2025.


Artist's concept of Parker Solar Probe in space. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

Parker Solar Probe will eventually fly through the corona, a super-heated envelope of plasma surrounding the sun wh ere temperatures soar to millions of degrees. The temperature surface of the sun hundreds of times cooler, but still a blistering 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 degrees Celsius).

"That just doesn't make sense," said Nicola Fox, Parker Solar Probe's project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the spacecraft and leads the science team. "You have a heat source, and it gets hotter as you move away. It's like walking away from a campfire and suddenly getting hotter. iI breaks the laws of nature. It breaks the laws of physics."

Scientists believe the million-mile-per-hour solar wind, a stream of plasma that travels outward through the solar system, is generated inside the corona.

Fox said that inside the corona, plasma "gets incredibly energized, so much so that it actually takes off and can break away from the huge pull of the sun with so much energy that it can move out, and it bathes all of the planets. It carries with it the sun's magnetic field."

The result, Fox said, is that the Earth is impacted by solar activity, producing geomagnetic storms as the solar wind interacts with the planet's magnetosphere, activating colorful auroral displays, potentially damaging satellites and disrupting communications and electrical grids.

"We live in the atmosphere of the sun, so when the sun sneezes, the Earth will catch a cold," Fox said in a presentation last month at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. "We feel whatever is going on on the sun."


The Delta 4-Heavy rocket slated to launch Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Key questions Parker Solar Probe was designed to address include charting the flow of heat and energy that accelerates the solar wind, collecting data that could help scientists forecast solar storms that might affect Earth.

During its closest approaches in 2024 and 2025, Parker Solar Probe will experience 478 times the sunlight present at Earth, which orbits around 93 million miles (150 kilometers) from the sun. The spacecraft's velocity will jump to roughly 430,000 mph — 120 miles per second or nearly 700,000 kilometers per hour — during its final perihelion passages.

Parker Solar Probe carries a heat shield to protect the spacecraft's most critical parts from the scorching temperatures, but the craft's power-generating solar panels and some parts of its scientific payload will remain exposed.

"We will be orbiting through the 3-million-degree plasma region," Fox said. "That sounds really hot, but the plasma there is not very dense. If you imagine turning your oven on to 400 degrees and letting it heat up, you could put your hand inside that oven. It won't burn you unless you touch something, so there's a difference between temperature and heat.

"There aren't that many particles around, so the actual amount that couples into the front side of our heat shield means that the front side is about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,400 degrees Centigrade (Celsius)," Fox said.

Behind the heat shield, or thermal protection system, the main body of the spacecraft will be warmed a little hotter than room temperature, but still within engineering tolerances for crucial parts like the probe's computer and propulsion system.

Parker Solar Probe's heat shield arrived at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida, on April 18 in a ground shipment from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Maryland.

One of the major activities at Astrotech in the lead-up to launch will be the installation of the heat shield, a 4.5-inch thick (11.4-centimeter) piece of carbon composite that stretches around 8 feet (nearly 2.5 meters) wide.

"The idea of exploring this region around the sun has been around for about 60 years," Kinnison said. "The primary thing that's kept us from doing that is the heat shield technology that will allow you to survive there ... That was one of the more critical technologies that we had to develop."

Once the heat shield is bolted on to the spacecraft, engineers will transfer Parker Solar Probe to a hazardous fueling facility wh ere it will be loaded with hydrazine propellant. Then ground crews will connect the probe to its Star 48 upper stage motor and encapsulate it inside the Delta 4's payload fairing before moving the spacecraft to the launch pad.


The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft (background at left) and the container with the mission's heat shield inside a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Officials are still working to resolve a couple of technical issues before clearing Parker Solar Probe for launch.

Peg Luce, the acting director of NASA's heliophysics division at NASA Headquarters, said earlier this month that engineers are studying the failure of several platinum resistance thermometers on the spacecraft.

"The platinum resistance thermometers are lightweight, highly sensitive temperature sensors used to help provide feedback to the spacecraft's cooling system and solar arrays," said Dwayne Brown, a NASA spokesperson. "We put all spacecraft through a rigorous test program to make sure all systems are working as designed and it is normal for a test program to uncover issues."

Luce said the thermometers, which contain fine wiring, could be repaired or replaced during pre-launch processing in Florida, if necessary. After assessing the situation during recent review of Parker Solar Probe's status, officials unanimously approved the spacecraft's shipment from Maryland to Florida, Brown said.

"There are a number of tests that we're doing back at the lab to understand what's going on," Kinnison said. "These sorts of things happen with spacecraft wh ere you come up with an issue at the end of the day, and the team pulls together and figures out what needs to be done, and we get it done. That's what I'm expecting to happen here."

In a presentation to a heliophysics advisory committee April 5, Luce said the mission managers are also examining "some late breaking problems that are being worked and watched very carefully" regarding the Star 48 upper stage motor.

"It all looks like that will be smoothed out in time for launch," Luce said.

But she said NASA will not go forward with the launch if there are any lingering concerns.

"We are not going to fly this mission if we have concerns about it, and if we have to take more time, we will," Luce said.

Parker Solar Probe's launch period extends through Aug. 19, and is limited by the position of Venus in its orbit around the sun. If the mission misses its launch opportunity this year, the next chance to send Parker Solar Probe into space will come in May 2019.

More photos of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket's arrival at its launch pad are posted below.


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky


Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

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[Чебурашка]

Бгг... а нафига её так рано выкатили... 
За три месяца птицы теплоизоляцию баков успеют склевать себе на гнёзда.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/04/27/safe-in-the-shadow-making-sure-solar-probes-instruments-keep-cool/

Safe in the Shadow: Making Sure Solar Probe's Instruments Keep Cool

Sarah Frazier
Posted Apr 27, 2018 at 1:54 pm



NASA's Parker Solar Probe is rotated down to a horizontal position during pre-launch processing and testing on April 10, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, just outside Kennedy Space Center. Once horizontal, the integration and testing team will measure the alignment of the heat shield mounting points with respect to the spacecraft structure. This is done to assure that the umbra (or shadow) cast by the heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System – protects the spacecraft and instruments.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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Parker Solar Probe | Faraday Cup Final Testing

Michigan Engineering

Опубликовано: 26 апр. 2018 г.

Justin Kasper, University of Michigan associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, prepares a model of the Faraday cup for testing prior to this summer's Parker Solar Probe launch. Kasper is principal investigator for Parker's SWEAP investigation, which will measure the solar wind. The cup is tested in a vacuum chamber and hit with light from four modified IMAX projectors and particles from an ion gun—all to ensure it will operate in the sun's atmosphere.

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https://news.engin.umich.edu/2018/04/key-parker-solar-probe-sensor-bests-sun-simulator-last-launch-hurdle/

Key Parker Solar Probe sensor bests sun simulator—last launch hurdle

by James Lynch  ▪ Michigan Engineering ▪ April 30, 2018

With old IMAX projector bulbs, Michigan Engineers simulate the sun.


Justin Kasper, University of Michigan associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, prepares a model of the Faraday cup for testing prior to this summer's Parker Solar Probe launch. Kasper is principal investigator for Parker's SWEAP investigation, which will measure the solar wind. The cup is tested in a vacuum chamber and hit with light fr om four modified IMAX projectors and particles fr om an ion gun—all to ensure it will operate in the sun's atmosphere.

You don't get to swim in the sun's atmosphere unless you can prove you belong there. And the Parker Solar Probe's Faraday cup, a key sensor aboard the $1.5 billion NASA mission launching this summer, earned its stripes last week by enduring testing in a homemade contraption designed to simulate the sun.

Спойлер

Justin Kasper, University of Michigan associate professor of climate and space sciences, prepares a model of the Faraday cup for testing prior to this summer's Parker Solar Probe Launch. Kasper is principal investigator for Parker's SWEAP investigation - charged with measuring the solar wind. The cup is tested in a vacuum chamber and hit with light from four modified IMAX projectors and particles from an ion gun - all to ensure it will operate in the sun's atmosphere. Photo: Levi Hutmacher/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing

The cup will scoop up and examine the solar wind as the probe passes closer to the sun than any previous manmade object. Justin Kasper, University of Michigan associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, is principal investigator for Parker's Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) investigation.

In order to confirm the cup will survive the extreme heat and light of the sun's corona, researchers previously tortured a model of the Faraday cup at temperatures exceeding 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, courtesy of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Plasma Arc Lamp. The cup, built from refractory metals and sapphire crystal insulators, exceeded expectations.

But the final test took place last week, in a homemade contraption Kasper and his research team call the Solar Environment Simulator. While being blasted with roughly 10 kilowatts of light on its surface—enough to heat a sheet of metal to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit in seconds—the Faraday cup model ran through its paces, successfully scanning a simulated stream of solar wind.


The Parker Solar Probe, launching this summer, will collect data from the sun's corona. Its mission will bring the spacecraft closer the sun than any manmade object in history and the data will help predict the impacts of solar weather. Image courtesy of NASA

"Watching the instrument track the signal from the ion beam as if it was plasma flowing from the Sun was a thrilling preview of what we will see with Parker Solar Probe," Kasper said.

Roilings in the sun's atmosphere can violently fling clouds of plasma into space, known as coronal mass ejections, sometimes directly at Earth. Without precautionary measures, such clouds can set up geomagnetic oscillations around Earth that can trip up satellite electronics, interfere with GPS and radio communications and—at their worst—can create surges of current through power grids that can overload and disrupt the system for extended periods of time, up to months.

By understanding what makes up the solar corona and what drives the constant outpouring of solar material from the sun, scientists on Earth will be better equipped to interpret the solar activity we see from afar and create a better early-warning system. That's wh ere Parker Solar Probe, slated for launch on July 31, 2018, comes in, with its complement of experiments that includes the Faraday cup.

To test the cup model, researchers had to create something new. Their simulator sits in a first-floor lab at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. and embodies the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.


Justin Kasper, (left), a University of Michigan associate professor of climate and space sciences engineering, and Anthony Case, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Institute for Astrophysics, celebrate after the Solar Probe Cup successfully survives the solar atmosphere testing. Photo: Levi Hutmacher/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing

It has the look of a makeshift operating room, with a metal frame holding up thick blue tarps around three sides creating a 16 x 8 workspace.

Inside the area, recreating the sun's heat and light fell to a quartet of modified older model IMAX projectors that Kasper's team purchased on eBay for a few thousand dollars apiece. These are not the digital machines you find in today's Cineplexes, but an earlier generation that utilized bulbs.

"It turns out a movie theater bulb on an IMAX projector runs at about the same 5,700 degrees Kelvin—the same effective temperature as the surface of the sun," Kasper said. "And it gives off nearly the same spectrum of light as the surface."

Space offers essentially no atmosphere, meaning a proper testing environment for the Faraday cup would have as little air as possible. So researchers placed the cup in a metal vacuum chamber for testing.

Resembling an iron lung, the seven-foot-long silver chamber has a hatch at one end that swings outward and has a small round window in it. The night before testing, the team began pumping the atmosphere out of the vacuum chamber.

By the time the simulation cranked up for testing, the chamber registered roughly one-billionth of the Earth's atmosphere.

All four of the IMAX projectors sit atop wheeled tables, and to set up for the test, researchers rolled them into place, with their beams pointed through the vacuum tube window directly at the Faraday cup.


The Solar Probe Cup is exposed to radiation and light as powerful as the sun as researchers look to pass the final test before the launch of the Parker Solar Probe

The final element of the simulator is its ability to generate the kinds of particles the Faraday cup will need to sense and evaluate. To do that, the team attached an ion gun to the vacuum tube hatch, with the "barrel" of the device reaching inside and pointed at the cup.

"The ion gun takes a pellet of metal and heats it up," said Anthony Case, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Institute for Astrophysics. "When it gets hot, ions start boiling off this piece of metal. Then you hook it up to a battery, accelerating the ions out of the gun. And we can direct them right toward the Faraday cup's aperture wh ere they'll be measured."

In this final test, the Faraday cup took the heat and delivered—putting Parker Solar Probe on track for its summer launch.

Kelly Korreck, a U-M alumna and astrophysicist at the Institute, serves as head of science operations on Parker's SWEAP investigation as well as SWEAP activities for the Smithsonian.

"As for the test today, it confirmed what I had suspected—when you take an amazing team of scientists and engineers, give them a complex, difficult, interesting project and the motivation of exploring a region of the universe humankind has never been to before, remarkable things happen," she said.

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[Apollo13]

Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 2h2 hours ago

Fox: Parker Solar Probe's heat shield was shipped separately to Florida, in a shipping container with the warning label "Do Not Expose To Direct Sunlight"

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/05/07/solar-power-parker-solar-probe-tests-its-arrays/

Solar Power: Parker Solar Probe Tests Its Arrays

Sarah Frazier
Posted May 7, 2018 at 12:01 pm

NASA's Parker Solar Probe gets its power from the Sun, so the solar arrays that collect energy from our star need to be in perfect working order. This month, members of the mission team tested the arrays at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to ensure the system performs as designed and provides power to the spacecraft during its historic mission to the Sun.

Спойлер

Andrew Gerger of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory inspects one of NASA's Parker Solar Probe's two solar panels by passing current through the array, which causes it to glow red and allows him to examine each individual solar cell. The testing occurred on May 2, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman


Andrew Gerger of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Rick Stall of Newforge Technologies check and adjust a purple laser using a replica of a solar array wing on May 3, 2018. Later, when the solar arrays are attached to the spacecraft, the laser will be used to illuminate each string of cells on the array to confirm the string is connected and will provide power to the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Parker Solar Probe is powered by two solar arrays, totaling just under 17 square feet (1.55 square meters) in area. They are mounted to motorized arms that will retract almost all of their surface behind the Thermal Protection System – the heat shield – when the spacecraft is close to the Sun.

By Geoff Brown

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory


Andrew Gerger, an engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, prepares to conduct an inspection of one of the solar arrays from NASA's Parker Solar Probe on May 2, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman


NASA's Parker Solar Probe is powered by two solar arrays, shown here on May 2, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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Heliospheric Future: Solar Probe Plus & Solar Orbiter

NASA Video

Опубликовано: 16 мая 2018 г.

Solar Probe Plus will move in a highly elliptical orbit, using seven gravity assists from Venus to move it closer to the Sun with each pass. Solar Orbiter will use Earth and Venus gravity assists to move into a relatively circular orbit and climb up and out of the ecliptic plane to capture the first images of the Sun's poles.

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/more-than-11-million-names-installed-on-nasa-s-parker-solar-probe

May 21, 2018

More Than 1.1 Million Names Installed on NASA's Parker Solar Probe

Throughout its seven-year mission, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will swoop through the Sun's atmosphere 24 times, getting closer to our star than any spacecraft has gone before. The spacecraft will carry more than scientific instruments on this historic journey — it will also hold more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to go to the Sun.

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"Parker Solar Probe is going to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, the only star we can study up close," said Nicola Fox, project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. "It's fitting that as the mission undertakes one of the most extreme journeys of exploration ever tackled by a human-made object, the spacecraft will also carry along the names of so many people who are cheering it on its way."

"Let's see what lies ahead."
– Gene Parker, July 2017

Back in March 2018, the public were invited to send their names to the Sun aboard humanity's first mission to "touch" a star. A total of 1,137,202 names were submitted and confirmed over the seven-and-a-half-week period, and a memory card containing the names was installed on the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, three months before the scheduled launch on July 31, 2018, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The card was mounted on a plaque bearing a dedication to and a quote from the mission's namesake, heliophysicist Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind. This is the first NASA mission to be named for a living individual.

This memory card also carries photos of Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars — including our Sun — give off material. He called this cascade of energy and particles the solar wind, a constant outflow of material from the Sun that we now know shapes everything from the habitability of worlds to our solar system's interaction with the rest of the galaxy.

Parker Solar Probe will explore the Sun's outer atmosphere and make critical observations to answer decades-old questions about the physics of stars. The resulting data may also improve forecasts of major eruptions on the Sun and subsequent space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.


A memory card containing 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun was installed on Parker Solar Probe on May 18, 2018.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
More images available from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

Though our understanding of the Sun and the solar wind has vastly improved since Parker first theorized the solar wind, there are still questions left unanswered. Two of the most fundamental mysteries – which scientists hope Parker Solar Probe will help solve – are the coronal heating problem and the mechanism behind solar wind acceleration.


In addition to a chip containing submitted names, the plaque installed on the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft also contains a dedication to and quote from Eugene Parker, the mission's namesake. It reads: "The Parker Solar Probe mission is dedicated to Dr. Eugene N. Parker whose profound contributions have revolutionized our understanding of the Sun and solar wind. 'Let's see what lies ahead' Gene Parker, July 2017"
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
More images available from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

The coronal heating problem is what scientists call the apparent mismatch between the temperature of the Sun's photosphere — the visible "surface," measuring about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — and the much higher temperature of the corona — the Sun's atmosphere, which reaches temperatures of up to 10 million degrees Fahrenheit. Since the Sun's energy source is at its core, this increase is similar to walking away from a campfire and suddenly feeling a thousand times hotter — completely counterintuitive. This implies that some other process is continually adding more heat to that solar atmosphere.

Scientists think that the mechanism behind this as-yet unexplained heating happens in the lower corona — and Parker Solar Probe will get closer to this region than any spacecraft has before. Getting a closer look at this region should help scientists identify the source of this coronal heating, along with pinpointing the process that accelerates the solar wind to enormous speeds as it leaves the Sun.

A commemorative reproduction of the plaque bearing an identical memory card — minus the submitted names — was presented to Parker at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in October 2017 by the mission team.

"From the experience of seeing the probe up close, I understand now the difficult task you are undertaking, and I am sure you will succeed," said Parker after visiting the spacecraft in the clean room.


The plaque containing names submitted to travel to the Sun is mounted below Parker Solar Probe's high-gain antenna (the round object with gray covering), which the spacecraft will use to transmit data back to Earth.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
More images available from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program, or LWS, to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Johns Hopkins APL manages the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA. APL designed and built the spacecraft and will also operate it.

By Sarah Frazier
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Last Updated: May 21, 2018
Editor: Rob Garner

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/06/06/power-up-solar-arrays-installed-on-nasas-mission-to-touch-the-sun/

Power Up: Solar Arrays Installed on NASA's Mission to Touch the Sun

Sarah Frazier
Posted Jun 6, 2018 at 3:00 pm


Members of the Parker Solar Probe team examine and align one of the spacecraft's two solar arrays on May 31, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

NASA's Parker Solar Probe depends on the Sun, not just as an object of scientific investigation, but also for the power that drives its instruments and systems. On Thursday, May 31, 2018, the spacecraft's solar arrays were installed and tested. These arrays will power all of the spacecraft's systems, including the suites of scientific instruments studying the solar wind and the Sun's corona as well as the Solar Array Cooling System (SACS) that will protect the arrays from the extreme heat at the Sun.

Спойлер

After installation of the solar arrays on May 31, 2018, Parker Solar Probe team members use a laser to illuminate the solar cells and verify that they can create electricity and transfer it to the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

"Unlike solar-powered missions that operate far from the Sun and are focused only on generating power from it, we need to manage the power generated along with the substantial heat that comes from being so close to the Sun," said Andy Driesman, project manager from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. "When we're out around the orbit of Venus, we fully extend the arrays to get the power we need. But when we're near the Sun, we tuck the arrays back until only a small wing is exposed, and that portion is enough to provide needed electrical power."


Parker Solar Probe's two solar arrays – one of which is shown here on the spacecraft – were installed on the spacecraft on May 31, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

The solar arrays are cooled by a gallon of water that circulates through tubes in the arrays and into large radiators at the top of the spacecraft. They are just over three and a half feet (1.12 meters) long and nearly two and a half feet (0.69 meters) wide. Mounted on motorized arms, the arrays will retract almost all of their surface behind the Thermal Protection System – the heat shield – when the spacecraft is close to the Sun. The solar array installation marks some of the final preparation and testing of Parker Solar Probe leading up to the mission's July 31 launch date.

By Justyna Surowiec

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory


A member of the Parker Solar Probe team examines one of the spacecraft's two solar arrays on May 31, 2018. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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