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Extreme Engineering
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NASA's historic Parker Solar Probe mission is revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun. Parker Solar Probe is swooping closer to the Sun's surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions.
The spacecraft will come as close as 3.8 million miles (about 6.1 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any other spacecraft had come before..
To perform these unprecedented investigations, the spacecraft and instruments are protected from the Sun's heat by a 4.5-inch-thick (11.43-centimeter) carbon-composite shield, which needs to withstand temperatures on its face that reach approximately 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).
Learn more about the Thermal Protection System ›The Spacecraft
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SpacecraftSpacecraft Facts
NAMESAKE: Dr. Eugene Parker, who in the 1950s proposed a number of concepts about how stars — including our Sun — give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is — contrary to what was expected by physics laws — hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. The mission was renamed for Parker in 2017, the first time NASA had named a mission for a living individual. Parker died in March 2022 at age 94.
MASS: The mass of the spacecraft at launch (with fuel) was about 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms). The heat shield, called the thermal protection system (TPS), weighs 160 pounds (73 kilograms).
DIMENSIONS: The spacecraft is about 9.8 feet (3 meters) tall and about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in diameter below the cooling system. The thermal protection system is a little over 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) thick and has a diameter of about 7.5 feet (2.3 meters).
POWER: The two solar arrays are each about 3.7 feet (1.1 meters) long by 2.3 feet (0.7 meters) wide, for a total area of 17.2 square feet (1.6 square meters). They can produce 388 watts of power, depending on configuration — about enough to run a kitchen blender.
COMMUNICATIONS: The spacecraft has three types of antenna.
- One high-gain antenna (HGA) for downlinking high-rate science data
- Two fan-beam antennas to support command uplink and real-time health and status telemetry downlink during nominal operations
- Two low-gain antennas (LGAs) to support command uplink and real-time health and status telemetry downlink during contingency operations
GUIDANCE AND CONTROL: Parker Solar Probe carries a hydrazine-fueled propulsion system and uses momentum wheels for attitude control.
SpacecraftExtreme Environments
To unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will come as close as 3.83 million miles (and 6.16 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before.
Flying into the Sun’s atmosphere (or corona) for the first time, Parker Solar Probe will employ a combination of in situ measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar wind.
Parker Solar Probe will perform its scientific investigations in a hazardous region of intense heat and solar radiation. The spacecraft will fly close enough to the Sun to watch the solar wind speed up from subsonic to supersonic, and it will fly though the birthplace of the highest-energy solar particles.
To perform these unprecedented investigations, the spacecraft and instruments will be protected from the Sun’s heat by a 4.5-inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite shield, which will need to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft that reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius).
Standing the Heat
The compact, solar-powered probe will house solar arrays that will retract and extend as the spacecraft swings toward or away from the Sun during several loops around the inner solar system, making sure the panels stay at proper temperatures and power levels. At its closest passes the spacecraft must survive solar intensity of about 475 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth.
SpacecraftInstruments
The primary science goals for the mission are to trace the flow of energy and understand the heating of the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind. Parker Solar Probe provides a statistical survey of the outer corona.
There are four major investigations:
Fields Experiment (FIELDS)
This investigation will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields and waves, Poynting flux, absolute plasma density and electron temperature, spacecraft floating potential and density fluctuations, and radio emissions.
FIELDS PI: Prof. Stuart Bale; University of California, Berkeley
Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS☉IS)
This investigation makes observations of energetic electrons, protons and heavy ions that are accelerated to high energies (10s of keV to 100 MeV) in the Sun's atmosphere and inner heliosphere, and correlates them with solar wind and coronal structures.
IS☉IS PI: Dr. David McComas; Princeton University
Wide-field Imager for Solar PRobe (WISPR)
These telescopes will take images of the solar corona and inner heliosphere. The experiment will also provide images of the solar wind, shocks and other structures as they approach and pass the spacecraft. This investigation complements the other instruments on the spacecraft providing direct measurements by imaging the plasma the other instruments sample.
WISPR PI: Dr. Mark Linton; Naval Research Laboratory
Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation
This investigation will count the most abundant particles in the solar wind -- electrons, protons and helium ions -- and measure their properties such as velocity, density, and temperature.
SWEAP PI: Prof. Justin Kasper; University of Michigan/ Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory
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