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NASA Plans Probe to the Sun

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hope-they-bring-suntan-lotion dept.

FudRucker writes "For more than 400 years, astronomers have studied the sun from afar. Now NASA has decided to go there. 'We are going to visit a living, breathing star for the first time,' says program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. 'This is an unexplored region of the solar system and the possibilities for discovery are off the charts.'"

15 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Okay? by Drakin020 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And how exactly do you plan to do that? Do we have any material that won't melt under the intense heat?

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
    1. Re:Okay? by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One could dissipate heat by having hundreds of monofilament wires to wick the heat away from such craft. Doing that should provide more time for the sensor array to gather and transmit more data.

      Of course, we could select Tom Cruise and other scientologists as crew.

      --
    2. Re:Okay? by CogDissident · · Score: 3, Insightful

      wick the heat "where"? The area around the sun is "all" over several thousand degrees, the size of those wires would have to be measured in hundreds of miles.

    3. Re:Okay? by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 1, Insightful

      We just have to invent the forcefield.

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
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    4. Re:Okay? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      There were hundreds of us wanting the be the person who posted the punchline...

    5. Re:Okay? by k33l0r · · Score: 2, Insightful

      RTFA.

      "At closest approach, Solar Probe+ will be 7 million km or 9 solar radii from the sun. There, the spacecraft's carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures greater than 1400 degrees C and survive blasts of radiation at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft."

    6. Re:Okay? by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My guess is that the Venus flybys are the answer. They fly the probe into the shadow of Venus and get it cold (remember only radiation transfers heat in space so the shade of Venus should be very cold). Then the probe points it's heat shield at the sun and makes a pass to collect data. Remember, heat transfer is not instantaneous. Because it's 10^6K outside does not mean it's instantly 10^6K inside. It simply means that the time it takes to reach, for example, 5800K is shorter than the time it would take if it was 5800K outside.

      By putting water (or other expendable materials) aboard the craft, they can further lengthen the time the craft can spend in extreme heat because it takes energy and therefore time for the water to convert to steam.

      Basically, it will use the same principles firewalkers use to keep them from burning their feet.

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    7. Re:Okay? by Thelasko · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I should hope that the solar probe has magnetic shielding, just to get a high stress test of tech. Magnetic shielding would be advantageous. Especially since the majority of the particles coming from the sun appear to be charged. However, the objectives of the mission state that it intends to study magnetic fields and the charged particles from the sun. These objectives would be difficult to meet with magnetic shielding.

      Plus, it wasn't mentioned in TFA.
      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  2. I AM PINBACKER! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    We have abandoned our mission. Our star is dying. All our science. All our hopes, our... our dreams, are foolish! In the face of this, we are dust, nothing more. Unto this dust, we return. When he chooses for us to die, it is not our place to challenge God!

  3. Name by Digital+End · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Should have named it Icarus

    --
    Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
  4. Re:Can we by pak9rabid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    select a few of our favorite people as crew for that mission? I have just the people
  5. Re:Don't worry NASA is not stupid. by Tango42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How have you not heard that joke before?

  6. That doesn't really answer the question by p3d0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The mission is 7 years long. In that time, wouldn't the heat shield reach thermal equilibrium, and become extremely hot itself, if not melt?

    Maybe they're just not going as close as we all think.

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    Patrick Doyle
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  7. Phlogiston, of course... by p3d0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...the same medium that rocket exhaust pushes against.

    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  8. Re:there's no night on the sun by Gilmoure · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't feel myself rotating.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates