NASA Eagerly Awaits Signal Support From Sun Discovery Spacecraft

This week, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe attempted to get closer to the Sun than any other man-made object. But due to a planned communications outage, the team behind the mission won’t know whether the spacecraft’s daring search was successful for at least another day.

On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe was scheduled to arrive sometime uncomfortable close range It was 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface, during which time the spacecraft had to lose contact with mission control. according to NASAa beacon pass is scheduled for Friday to confirm whether the probe survived its record-breaking close encounter with the Sun.

“No man-made object has ever come this close to a star, so Parker will return data from truly uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, operations manager for the Parker Solar Probe mission at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft as it orbits the Sun.”

If successful, Tuesday’s flight will be the first of three encounters over the same distance. During perihelion, the spacecraft will pass the Sun at 430,000 miles per hour, breaking the record for the fastest time traveled by any man-made object. At such a speed, the probe could go from Washington to Philadelphia in a second. During docking, the spacecraft must withstand hot pipeline temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius) and maintain an internal temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4 degrees Celsius). Parker does this with a heat shield several inches thick that reflects most of the Sun’s heat.

The Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 to take an unprecedented, close-up look at our host star. Since launch, the spacecraft has been preparing for its perihelion, or closest approach, by approaching the Sun on every orbit. The Parker probe has made 21 approaches to the Sun, coming as close as 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) to the Sun’s surface. In November, Parker Solar Probe launched The seventh and last flight of Venususing the planet’s gravity to place the spacecraft on a trajectory toward closest approach to the sun.

As it speeds toward the Sun’s surface, the Parker probe will gather valuable information about the star and how it affects the space environment around it. “This is an example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something no one else has done to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe program scientist. “We can’t wait to receive the first status update from the spacecraft and begin receiving science data in the coming weeks.”