Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun.

[imhotep]

NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun has confirmed that it survived its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun’s surface on Dec. 24.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles (around 6.1 million kilometers) above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kilometers per hour) — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone, received in the mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) late on Dec. 26, confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally. APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft from its campus in Laurel, Maryland.

 

[B.Chat]

Up

 

[Asmodeus]

They said if we scale the average distance to the Sun to the Earth as a meter, the Parker spacecraft is as much closer to the Sun as 4 centimeters. Wow. I wonder how they manage the heat.

 

[imhotep]

They said if we scale the average distance to the Sun to the Earth as a meter, the Parker spacecraft is as much closer to the Sun as 4 centimeters. Wow. I wonder how they manage the heat.

Apparently they took the cue from Kim Jong Un. They went in closer during the night time.


PS: Parker Solar Probe makes use of a heat shield known as the Thermal Protection System, or TPS, which is 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter and 4.5 inches (about 115 mm) thick. Those few inches of protection mean that just on the other side of the shield, the spacecraft body will sit at a comfortable 85 F (30 C).

The TPS was designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and was built at Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies, using a carbon composite foam sandwiched between two carbon plates. This lightweight insulation will be accompanied by a finishing touch of white ceramic paint on the sun-facing plate, to reflect as much heat as possible. Tested to withstand up to 3,000 F (1,650 C), the TPS can handle any heat the Sun can send its way, keeping almost all instrumentation safe.

 

[Reincarnator]

TFS

 

[Walter White]

TFS !!!!!

 

[Stimulus mind]

TFS brother.

 

[NRTG]

TFS

 

[kinkon]

ෆොටෝ එවනකන් බලන් ඉන්නෙ

 

[hichchiputha]

Ela agent