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PSA: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Is Launching Saturday Morning; Here's How To Watch (pbs.org)
In the early hours of Saturday morning, NASA is scheduled to launch the Parker Solar Probe for a seven-year mission to study the sun and its atmosphere. The spacecraft will take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, traveling up to 430,000 miles per hour towards the star -- that will make it the fastest spacecraft ever. Assuming you're reading this story around the time it's published, you still have time to watch the launch via NASA's livestream. The launch window for the Parker Solar Probe opens at 3:33 a.m. ET Saturday, but the exact launch time is unknown.
The New York Times has published a story about Eugene N. Parker, the professor that the spacecraft was named after. It is the first time that NASA has named a mission for a living person. Here's an excerpt from the report: In a foundational paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Parker described how charged particles streamed continuously from the sun, like the flow of water spreading outward from a circular fountain. Almost no one believed him. [...] Four years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus, measured energetic particles streaming through interplanetary space -- exactly what Dr. Parker had predicted. Scientists now call that stream of particles the solar wind. UPDATE: After several delays, the Sun-chasing probe successfully launched on August 12th at 3:31AM.
The New York Times has published a story about Eugene N. Parker, the professor that the spacecraft was named after. It is the first time that NASA has named a mission for a living person. Here's an excerpt from the report: In a foundational paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Parker described how charged particles streamed continuously from the sun, like the flow of water spreading outward from a circular fountain. Almost no one believed him. [...] Four years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus, measured energetic particles streaming through interplanetary space -- exactly what Dr. Parker had predicted. Scientists now call that stream of particles the solar wind. UPDATE: After several delays, the Sun-chasing probe successfully launched on August 12th at 3:31AM.
Then there is the flip side of the equation: If we are indeed at the start of a Maunder minimum then DRILL BABY DRILL! Frac the shit out of all the shale until the water in our farmer's houses explode! We are going to need the oil companies for the same reason Hitler needed to turn south in the Ukraine. And a presence in North Africa with control of the Suez
All the bullshit I just spouted aside, if we are indeed at the start of a quiet period of solar activity then the benefit may indeed be a moderation of our climate and a return, however brief, to a semblance of the climate conditions and annual cycles we had only 30 years ago. Even if we dump a butt tonne more CO2 into the atmosphere by burning millions of tonnes of fossil fuels to compensate for killer winter cold especially in Northern Sates and Canada, a series of years as cold as the little ice age of the Baroque era will only be survived with the increased use of fossil fuels. The numbers freezing in the streets of Europe and North America will be astounding, during the little ice age it was common to find the poor and their children frozen to death outside or even inside the churches.
The data from this probe will help tell the tale, if there are any of us left to crunch it.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call