Parker Solar Probe

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Parker Solar Probe is NASA's huge mission to get so close to any Star. The main purpose of the mission is knowledge of our own Sun, how the changes influence the solar system, and affects the Earth. This mission will undergo such a condition of heat and radion, it will get closer to the Sun than any satellite before in the history.

Parker Solar Probe Insignia

It was launched on August 12, 2018 from the Cape Canaveral in Florida using Delta IV Heavy with Upper Stage. The Delta IV Heavy is an heavy lift launch vehicle largest from the Delta IV family rockets. The Delta IV Heavy uses 2 additional Common Booster Cores as liquid rocket boosters. During the lift off, all 3 cores are at full thrust, after 44 second the middle ones is lower down to 55 per cent. The boosters burn out after 242 second after the launch. After the separation the middle booster throttles back to the full thrust. The middle burns out 86 second later after the separation and the second stage can finish the ascent to orbit.

Delta IV Heavy during the launch from 2013

Additionally Parker Solar Probe will use Venus's gravity during 7 flybys over almost 7 years to get gradually to the vicinity of the Sun. The spacecraft plan is to fly through the Solar corona about 6.2 million km from the surface. It will help better to understand the solar corona and origin and evolution of the solar wind (see History of solar wind, Solar wind). It will help the predict the Space weather and Earth's environment, as well as the technology.

Actually the spacecraft will fly so close to the Sun to observe the solar wind speed up from subsonic to supersonic. As it will fly so close it will undergo temperatures about 1400 C. So the instruments need to be protected by the 11.43 cm heat carbon-composite shield.

 The main goals can be summarized as: accelerating of the solar wind, energy flow; structure and dynamics of the solar magnetic field; and mechanism of acceleration of the energetic particles.

Major investigations are planned:
  • Electromagnetic Fields Investigations (FIELDS) will measure electric and magnetic field, waves, shocks and reconnections.
  • Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS☉IS) will use 2 instruments in combined investigation to measure particles (electrons, protons and ions) in wide range energies to understand where they came from, how they became accelerated and how they propagate through the interplanetary space.   
  • Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) will gather observation from 2 instruments - Solar Probe Cup and Solar Probe Analyzers: instruments will count electrons, protons and helium ions in the solar wind, to measure their properties such as velocity, density, temperature to improve our knowledge about the solar corona and the solar wind.
  • Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) will capture images and will look at the large scale structures such as CMEs, jets, etc. before it will fly through it. 

Note: The name of the spacecraft is named after the American solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker, born in June 10, 1927. Most remarkable, in 1950s he developed the theory of the supersonic solar wind and predicted the Parker spiral shape of the solar magnetic field. In 2017, NASA renamed the spacecraft, originally Solar Probe Plus, to Parker Solar Probe in his honor.

Updates: 
  • On August 13, the high gain antenna was released. 
  • The Parker Solar Prober is on its way for the first Venus flyby scheduled for October 3, 2018 heading for the first perihelion of the Sun planned on November 5, 2018 (November 6 in UTC time). 

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