NASA : Sending a Mission to Touch the Sun
Today, as my first post in Steemit, I am posting about a Mission of extremes which will lead to a new era of exploration and it's exciting to see what kind of new information the mission will provide for the safety and protection of our planet. I am sure you will love it and start the new year with a positive attitude in mind.
You know? When we were a little and we see a light bulb or we see a candle light and we just want to touch anything! Our parents smack our hand and say no that burns. But then we go and touch it anyway because I don't know I guess we all love touching shiny things and in this Galaxy, there's nothing more shiny and luminous then of course the Sun and of course in previous years NASA has visited were sent probes to many extraordinary places in space from neighboring Planets, even Comets and Asteroids.
But never has NASA ever considered visiting the Sun. Until now the Sun is 93 Million Miles were a hundred and fifty million kilometres away from Earth and that's actually within arm's reach when comparing it to distances as some of NASA's probes such as the Voyager 1 have ventured. The Voyager 1 has actually let the Solar System and is now 11.7 Billion Miles or 18.9 Billion Kilometres from Earth. But of course, we all know why a visitation to the Sun was never really considered because just like a pizza fresh from the oven it looks beautiful; you want to touch it but it's just too hot to handle. The Sun Coronal Law which is the RO of Plasma that surrounds the Sun is around a Million Degrees Farhenhiet where 553 Thousand Degrees Celsius.
The Sun's core reaches temperatures of 27 Million Degrees Farenheit where 15 Million Degrees Celsius. The high pressure and temperature in the core allow atoms of Hydrogen to be fused into Helium releasing Gamma Radiation. So yeah the Sun is pretty hot but despite its temperature NASA has finally given in to its inner child and decided to pay the Sun a visit. Why? Because there are still many unanswered questions about the Sun and also it's bright and we want to touch it! Anyway back to the unanswered questions for example one of the biggest questions to date is why the Corona or Atmosphere of the Sun is hotter than the surface? So not only will the mission answer a few questions about the Sun it will also allow researchers to get up close and personal with the Sun to see how it really works!
It will even allow us to prevent future Space Threats like Solar Storms that have the ability to shut down electrical grids across the planet. These storms caused great damage and one study even revealed that one storm can do up to 2 Trillion Dollars in damages in the United States alone. So at a press conference on May of 3rd first NASA announced that it will launch its probe into the Corona of the Sun sometime between July 31st and August 19th of 2018. The probe originally called the Solar Probe Plus Spacecraft has now been renamed as the Parker Solar Probe after Eugene Parker in American Solar Astrophysicist who has contributed greatly to our understanding of the Sun.
The mission will be ground breaking in so many ways. First of all this mission will allow us to be 7 times closer to the Sun than any other mission has previously gone at a planted distance of 3.8 million miles where 6.1 million kilometres. It will mark the first time a human built machine has ever touched the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe will repeatedly swoop through the Corona making up to 24 close approaches. It will be moving at Four hundred and thirty thousand miles an hour which is so fast that it's like flying from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute and if you're wondering why NASA has taken 60 years to plan this mission? Well the materials that were needed for such a close encounter with the Sun didn't exist until recent times in order for the probe to survive the visit a heat shield have to be made. Parker Solar Probe heat shield was developed using NASA's Research Money to withstand not only the temperature of the Sun but also the temperature contrast from hot to cold to too hot to cold because of the 24 orbits that the Parker Solar Probe will make withstanding that kind of temperature difference is what makes the heat shield so amazing not only that New Solar Panels were also developed to keep the Space Probe cool.
Since the Space Probe will be so close to the Sun; the Solar Panels will only have to stick out their fingertips just a little bit alone will generate enough energy for the Space Probe to run also if any of you guys living in the States and want to see the Sun's Corona for yourself. You'll be able to on Monday August the 21st where there will be a Total Solar Eclipse. For those of you who don't know A Total Solar Eclipse is when the disk of the Moon blocks out the last sliver of light from the Sun and the Sun's Corona becomes visible. This is going to be an extremely rare sighting so mark your calendars.
Anyway this mission of extremes will lead to a new era of exploration and it's exciting to see what kind of new information the mission will provide for the safety and protection of our planet. Of course it'd be really cool if the Space Probe found a few Sun Aliens were is living in there as well! All right guys let me know if you are interested about this mission.
REFERENCES:
NASA : MISSION TO TOUCH THE SUN
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This is one amazing mission, it will sure take the human race once step further in technology advancement.
It got me thinking; can there ever be a manned visit to the sun?
This is next to impossible, as you would have to build a system to withstand 15 million °C, and a cooling system to keep the temperature inside the spacecraft at 25 °C.
Well, of course it is impossible, i was only thinking out loud
Interesting post tech-mac, thank you. Could be another reason NASA choose now to go to the Sun is to take advantage of the Grand Solar Minimum. The Sun will be far less active during the current solar cycle, it is going to cool off on Earth folks. Best.