Parker Solar Probe

NASA will fly a spacecraft directly into the Sun in a bid to unlock the secrets of solar storms that plays havoc with satellites and power supplies, the agency has announced. It will swoop inside the Sun’s corona, its superheated outer atmosphere, on a pathfinding mission to learn more about how stars work. Nasa’s $1.5bn Parker Solar Probe, which will be protected by a shield that can withstand temperatures of 1,400C, will journey within 6m km of the Sun’s surface, seven times closer than any previous spacecraft.

Set to launch next year, the Parker Solar Probe promises to “revolutionise” mankind’s understanding of the Sun and the origins of physics, scientists said last night, as well as helping protect equipment from solar radiation.

Advances in thermal engineering

The Parker Solar Probe itself will weigh 685kg at launch, measure three metres long, have a maximum diameter of 2.3m and be hexagonal in shape. To keep it moving throughout the 92.96-million-mile journey from Earth, a series of solar panel arrays will be used. These arrays will be able to extend – like wings – when energy to power the craft is needed and retract if they get too hot or are exposed to excessive amounts of radiation. Nasa and the European Space Agency have launched several satellites in the past to observe the Sun but they have operated from further away, where the heat and radiation are less intense.

Advances in thermal engineering and materials technology make the closer approach of the Parker Probe possible, in particular a carbon-composite shield 11.4cm thick that protects its payload. The four scientific instruments will remain at around terrestrial room temperature. Their main goal is to trace the origin of the solar wind and how it gathers speed through the corona.

Analysis

Instabilities in the corona lead to solar flares and mass ejections of highly magnetised material. When these reach Earth’s atmosphere, they cause “space weather” — changes in the terrestrial magnetic field and radiation levels. Scientists say solar super-storms might destroy vulnerable infrastructure such as electric grids and communications satellites, though operators could take emergency action to reduce the damage if they receive advance warning. Nasa plans to launch the 685kg craft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida next summer on its Delta IV-Heavy rocket, the most powerful available. It will take almost seven years to reach the Sun via a series of fly-bys of the planet Venus.

The European Space Agency is also preparing a mission to the Sun, though it will not get as close as the Parker Solar Probe. Esa’s Solar Orbiter is due to launch no earlier than October 2018, also from Kennedy Space Center. The two missions will be co-ordinated to make complementary observations of the same events in the corona from different positions.

Assessment

Will Parker Solar Probe answer the questions about solar physics that we’ve puzzled over for more than six decades?

It’s a spacecraft loaded with technological breakthroughs that will solve many of the largest mysteries about our star, including finding out why the sun’s corona is so much hotter than its surface. Such an advancement in the technology can lead to various inventions.