http___metro-portal.hr_nasa-salje-sondu-na-sunce_113696_1.xml
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NASA Probe to ‘Touch’ the Sun NASA NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be the first-ever mission to “touch” the sun. The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, will travel directly into the sun’s atmosphere about 4 million miles from our star’s surface. Launch is slated for summer 2018. The Parker Solar Probe is named in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker. “This is the first time NASA has named a spacecraft for a living individual,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “It’s a testament to the importance of his body of work, founding a new field of science that also inspired my own research and many important science questions NASA continues to study and further understand every day. I’m very excited to be personally involved honoring a great man and his unprecedented legacy.” “The solar probe is going to a region of space that has never been explored before,” said Parker. “It’s very exciting that we’ll finally get a look. One would like to have some more detailed measurements of what’s going on in the solar wind. I’m sure that there will be some surprises. There always are.” In order to unlock the mysteries of the sun’s atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe will use Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun. The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before. (Earth’s average distance to the sun is 93 million miles.) Flying into the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the 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. It will also make critical contributions to our ability to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment that affect life and technology on Earth. Extreme Exploration At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe hurtles around the sun at approximately 430,000 mph (700,000 kph). That’s fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second. At closest approach to the sun, the front of Parker Solar Probe’s solar shield faces temperatures approaching 2,500 F (1,377 C). The spacecraft’s payload will be near room temperature. On the final three orbits, Parker Solar Probe flies to within 3.7 million miles of the sun’s surface – more than seven times closer than the current record-holder for a close solar pass, the Helios 2 spacecraft, which came within 27 million miles in 1976 and more than 10 times closer than Mercury, which is about 42 million miles from the sun. 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 F (1,377 C). The Science of the Sun The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles. Scientists have sought these answers for more than 60 years, but the investigation requires sending a probe right through the 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit heat of the corona. Today, this is finally possible with cutting-edge thermal engineering advances that can protect the mission on its dangerous journey. Parker Solar Probe will carry four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and image the solar wind.
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NASA šalje sondu na Sunce NASA se nada da će joj Parker pomoći da stekne znanja o funkcioniranju zvijezda i prikupi podatke kojima će se unaprijediti vremenska prognoza na Zemlji Nakon što je spustila robota na Mars i poslala sonde u prelete pokraj drugih planeta, NASA je spremna lansirati svemirsku letjelicu do zvijezde s kojom svi živimo - Sunca. Solarna sonda Parker bit će lansirana s Kennedyjeva svemirskog centra u Cape Canaveralu u subotu. Bit će to početak misije s ciljem rješavanja zagonetki koje astrofizičare zbunjuju već 60 godina. Parker će biti prva letjelica koja će dosegnuti Sunčevu atmosferu, koronu. Površini Sunca prići će na 6,1 milijun kilometara, sedam puta bliže nego što joj se približila bilo koja druga letjelica. Parker će prvo krenuti prema Veneri, Suncu drugom najbližem planetu i iskoristiti njezinu gravitaciju kako bi se približila najsjajnijoj zvijezdi našeg sustava. Kruženje oko Venere sondu će usmjeriti na put kojim će se Suncu početi približavati u studenome. U idućih sedam godina Parker bi trebao 24 puta okružiti planet i postupno stizati sve bliže Suncu. Tijekom misije letjelica će provoditi znanstvena istraživanja u opasnom području intenzivne vrućine i solarne radijacije, objavila je NASA. Čak i s udaljenosti od 6,1 milijuna kilometara, sonda će biti dovoljno blizu za ispitivanje kako solarni vjetar ubrzava iz podzvučne u nadzvučnu brzinu. Parker, letjelica teška 700 kilometara, kretat će se brzinom od 200 kilometara u sekundi. NASA se nada da će joj Parker pomoći da stekne znanja o funkcioniranju zvijezda i prikupi podatke kojima će se unaprijediti vremenska prognoza na Zemlji. Također, nada se da će otkriti mnoge od Sunčevih tajni poput one o tome zašto je korona, suprotno onome što bi se očekivalo po zakonima fizike, toplija od same Sunčeve površine. Primarni znanstveni cilj misije je praćenje kako se energija i toplina kreću koronom i istraživanje što to ubrzava solarni vjetar i solarne energetske čestice. Znanstvenici odgovore na ta pitanja traže 60 godina, ali nisu ih mogli pomnije istražiti sve dok nije razvijena tehnologija koja bi letjelici omogućila termalnu zaštitu. Parker će imati 12 centimetara debeli toplinski štit, napravljen uglavnom od ugljika, koji bi trebao podnijeti temperaturu višu od 1.300 stupnjeva Celzija i intenzivnu radijaciju. Ovo je prva letjelica NASA-e nazvana po živućem znanstveniku, astrofizičaru Eugeneu Parkeru koji je život posvetio proučavanju Sunca. "Solarna sonda ide u dosad neistraženo područje svemira", rekao je Parker u svibnju. "Vrlo je uzbudljivo što ćemo napokon Sunce moći pogledati izbliza. Siguran sam da će biti iznenađenja. Uvijek ih ima". I Europska svemirska agencija planira lansirati sondu do Sunca, u listopadu. Iako su ova dva projekta razvijena neovisno, očekuje se njihova bliska suradnja u budućnosti.