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NASA Preps Closest-Ever Sun Mission
coondoggie writes "NASA today said it had picked five experiments that will ride aboard one of its most ambitious space missions to explore the Sun. The Solar Probe, a car-sized spacecraft, is scheduled to launch no later than 2018 and will fly closer to the Sun's surface than any other probe, NASA stated. Ultimately the spacecraft's goals are to help scientists understand why the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system, NASA said."
I don't see all the fuss. Why not just go at night?
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
...I hope they don't decide to call it Icarus
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Ultimately the spacecraft's goals are to help scientists understand why the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind ...
I thought they'd figured that out (recently): Vibrations of the solar magnetic field line loops pump energy into the plasma fraction of the gas above the visible "surface", heating it. Reconnection of the lines cause the new loops to expand like released springs, catapulting the entrapped plasma outward.
Didn't that work out once they finished the math on the details?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
NASA gets a tiny tiny fraction of a penny of every tax dollar you pay. Why don't you go troll the Defense Department?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
From various C&H cartoons, a bunch of his Dad's quotes are collected here: http://elise.com/quotes/a/ask_calvins_dad.php Q. Why does the sun set? A. It's because hot air rises. The sun's hot in the middle of the day, so it rises high in the sky. In the evening then, it cools down and sets. Q. Why does it go from east to west? A. Solar wind. Q. Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets? A. That's all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire. Q. Where does the sun go when it sets? A. The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near Flagstaff. That's why the rocks there are so red. Q. Don't the people get burned up? A. No, the sun goes out as it sets. That's why it's dark at night. Q. Doesn't the sun crush the whole state as it lands? A. Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun's just about the same size. Q. I thought I read that the sun was really big. A. You can't believe everything you read, I'm afraid.
I'll admit that my source for this is the Sunshine DVD's commentary track, but...
The surface of the sun is not nearly as hot as the re-entry temperatures for some of the probes returning to Earth; and they don't plan on going anywhere near the surface of the sun with the Solar Probe.. 2 million kilometers or something (according to that same DVD).
They'll be fine with the tech for shielding against heat that we've already got.
Vibrations of the solar magnetic field line loops pump energy into the plasma fraction of the gas above the visible "surface", heating it. Reconnection of the lines cause the new loops to expand like released springs, catapulting the entrapped plasma outward.
Discoveries like these really make you wonder and marvel at the incredible physics of the universe. I mean, who makes up all this stuff? It's just incredible to see atoms and molecules self-align themselves according to pre-planned rules like gravity, electromagnetism etc in a seeminly random way to create what is.
...will they set the controls for the heart of the sun?
This video and it's maker deserve to be called stupid.
As they don't know that the white dot is a planet Venus or Mercury.
That person also doesn't know comets and meteor from background noise on the SOHO image.
This video is not even worth my time wasting it on this video.
And a depressed robot to open it.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
When do we land a human on the Sun?
Are you serious? The Sun's way too hot. Humans can't survive on the surface, except at night.
Can't you dipshits go back to Digg?
I liked the annual September flamefest better when it was Usenet vs AOL.
The Russians were faced with the same dilemma.
They used a mirror.
You joke, but that's precisely what everyone does already. That gold foil that you see covering spacecraft is used because gold is an excellent reflector of infrared light.
Jupiter would need to be about 75 times as massive to become a star...
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
from what I know, all that is based on heavy numerical simulations (prone to errors in the assumptions, lack of more thorough numerics, etc). The simulations are based on parameters determined from measurements made from distances longer than those that will be reached with this new probe, and on assumptions also extrapolated from everything observed "from here". Summed up, that explanation could be right or completely wrong. We have to measure more and from smaller distances.
So, does anyone know what the trajectory is? As any rocket scientist knows, a direct (minimum energy Hoffman style) trajectory that would have them skim the surface of the sun (or even get it closer than Mercury) would require a huge amount of delta-V (and a huge rocket for a little payload, we're talking Saturn V size). That, of course is why NASA's Mercury orbiter (now approaching orbital insertion) used several (3-4?) gravity assists using both Venus and Mercury).
So what is this thing going to do? Maybe the delta-V requirements won't be as extreme (I assume it will go into a highly elliptical orbit) so perhaps some gravity assists around the inner planets will suffice. Or maybe a much more ambitious(?) plan will be used, to send it out to Jupiter whose deep gravity well could cancel its orbital momentum in one fell swoop and, if used to the extreme, would send it plummeting directly into the sun. Of course they won't but it could send it in a wide variety of orbits such as over the Sun's poles. This of course was the trajectory used by Ulysses which gave us our first views "overhead" (but at a much greater distance).
Of course if they send it out to Jupiter, the spacecraft will need to be able to survive the relative cold, low power (from the illustrations it uses solar panels) and high radiation environment (presumably the sun isn't as radioactive, just hot) as well as the extremes from a close encounter with the sun. Also the trip may be longer (but these inner planet swing-bys take time as well). So my guess is, despite the additional orbital flexibility, the additional requirements would argue against it. (On the other hand, it would be easy to add a small detachable probe that, as I mentioned before, could actually impact the sun!).
Anyone know what trajectory the will be using?
P.S. You know, the fact that the precisely tracked radio transmitting probe will end up in a highly eccentric orbit around the deepest gravity well in our solar system would really make it a great additional test for Einstein's theory of general relativity. Not that it really needs additional verification but why not?
P.P.S. The technology isn't quite ready yet but this, of course, would be a very good use of a solar sail. At the much closer distances to the sun that this probe is going, even a relatively small, inefficient sail could really be useful in changing it's trajectory. (By tacking "against" the direction of orbital motion it could fall closer to the sun). Then, with it's mission over, the same sail could blow it out into interstellar space (and as it got further from the sun, could reflect some of the light onto the probe's solar panels keeping it powered. Just thinking out loud.
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