parker solar probe

The probe

Hello, friends I am shubham and this is spaceinfinite . the place where I tell you about interesting space related stuff. So stay tunned because today I am going to share some information about NASA’s  solar mission of ‘parker solar probe’ which is surely going to be a historical space mission in the history of human kind.

So friends, NASA  officially  announced  the mission back in 2009, which was a source of curiosity for peoples that how NASA could send a probe to a huge fireball, in front of which our earth or any other planet in our solar system is nothing , so how could NASA send a spacecraft which could not only survive the intense heat of our sun, but also work properly and gather the information required by the scientists about the nearest star to our planet . but on 12^th august 2018 , NASA proved that it could be done by launching the parker solar probe on a long journey to our sun in order to understand it.

So friends what you think that how  scientists would be able to do that , lets talk about it .

Starting from the origin , friends I would like to mention that parker solar probe was first named as solar probe only , but later on NASA decieded to rename it to ‘Parker solar probe’ in order to give tribute to mr.   Eugene parker , professor in  university of California.

Parker solar probe ‘s aim is to reach the Corona of the sun , which is insanely hot place, even far away hotter than the surface of the sun, as per the scientific measurements the surface temperature of sun is approx  5,500 degree Celsius. But the temperature of Corona is about a million degree Celsius!!!  Well I don’t really know that how it could be possible but scientists have given many theories regarding this, but I don’t  think  any of them could be considered completely true.

The parker solar probe will approach within the 8.86 solar radii  i.e  6.2  million killometeres or 3.85 million miles  near the photosphere i.e the surface of the sun. well it sounds that the probe is not really close enough to the sun , but friends trust me it is insanely near to that giant fireball .

Did I mentioned the speed at which the probe will travel towards the star?

Well its 7,00,000 km/hr  i.e  7 lakh km/hr. that is incredibly fast speed and officially the fastest moving object made by the human kind ever, that’s a proud moment , isn’t it?

Talking  a bit technically , the parker solar probe mission is a heliophysics  mission, which means the mission which will include the complete study of the sun, whether it be inside the sun or outside , its neighboring environment and everything related to it, in short it is the study of complete physics about the sun. which would be very helpful in studying  the working or mechanism of  not only our sun but also other stars in our universe, specially the medium sized stars like our sun.

The structure and work

Well talking about the dimensions of the probe , so the launch mass of the probe was 685 kgs and the dry mass is 555 kgs. Its almost the mass of an average car.

NASA launched the probe from the Cape Canaveral air force station, Florida on 12^th of august 2018.

The orbit of the probe around the sun is of about 88 days.

Now comes the most important question that how would the probe will withstand the intense heat  of our sun ,  so here’s the answer to this.

Well the probe is protected with a solar shield of 2-3 metres which of hexagonal shape, which is about 11.4 cm thick . the shield is made up of reinforced carbon-carbon composite which could easily withstand the temperature of about 1370 degree Celsius.

Friends solar radiation in the corona is about 475 times more than that to the solar radiation on the earth’s orbit.

The spacecraft systems and scientific instruments are placed in the central position  behind the shield’s shadow. As the shield would be only at the solar facing side , and scientist would not like the instruments to face the sun directly as it would cause the instruments to destroy completely.

I would like to mention that the parker solar probe is the most autonomous probe ever .

As the distance of sun from the earth is about 150 million kms, so the radio communications from the earth to the probe would require about 8 minutes to reach the probe, and to make the probe work properly and to keep instruments safe from being  in direct contact from the sun, the probe should change its direction continuously in order to keep the solar shield to face the sun directly and avoid the instruments to be burned . and it was not a good idea to control the probe from the earth , so the scientists and engineers decided to make the probe nearly completely  autonomous machine , so that the things could be done smoothly and  right.

Friends ,  the main power source of the probe is obiviously solar panels, but it would not be a good idea to make solar panel face the sun all the time, so the panels wold face the heat and gather energy for a short time and get inside the probe , in order to avoid burning the probe  also include the pumped- fluid cooling system to maintsain operating temperature of the solar panels and instruementations .

Goals

When talking about the tasks to be performed by the probe then it includes a lot of tasks which are assigned to the probe.

1.       The first task of the probe is to trace the energy flow that heats the corona and accelerates solar winds .

2.       Second task is to determine the structure and dynamics of the magnetic fields and find out the source of origin of solar winds.

3.       The third task is to determine that what mechanism accelerate and transport the energetic particles.

For performing such tasks many systems are included in the probe which are:

1.       FIELDS:  To measure the electric and magnetic fields around sun.

2.       ISOISl: This investigation system will measure the energetic electrons , protons, and heavy ions.

3.       WISPR: optical telescopes that will acquire image of corona and inner Heliosphere.

4.       SWEAP: To  count the electrons, protons and helium ions and measure their properties such as velocity, density, temperature.

5.       HelioSPP: theory and modeling investigation for good results from the mission.

So, friends these were the five major tasks to be performed by the parker solar probe.

Hope you liked the information about the parker solar probe.

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