This week, NASA‘s Parker Solar Probe attempted to get closer to the Sun than any other human-made object. But due to a planned communications blackout, the mission team won’t know if this bold attempt was successful for at least another day.
On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe was to approach the surface of the Sun to an uncomfortably close distance of 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers), and during this time the spacecraft was not to communicate with the mission control center. According to NASA, on Friday, the probe is to transmit a beacon to confirm whether or not it has experienced a record close approach to the Sun.
“No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly bring back data from uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Probe mission manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement. “We look forward to hearing back from the spacecraft as it returns to orbit around the sun.”
If successful, Tuesday’s flyby will be the first of three passes at the same distance. At its perihelion, the spacecraft will fly past the Sun at 430,000 miles per hour, breaking its own record for the fastest travel by any human-made object. At this speed, the probe will be able to fly from Washington to Philadelphia in one second. During the rendezvous, the spacecraft must withstand temperatures of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius) while keeping its internal temperature at a much lower level 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 was launched in August 2018 to observe our star from an unprecedentedly close distance. Since its launch, the spacecraft has been preparing for perihelion, or closest approach, getting closer to the Sun with each successive orbit. The Parker probe has made 21 close encounters with the Sun, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. In November, the Parker Solar Probe made its seventh and final flyby of Venus, using the planet’s gravitational pull to put the spacecraft on a trajectory for closest approach to the Sun.
As it approaches the Sun’s surface, Parker will collect valuable data about the star and how it affects the space environment around it. “This is one example of NASA’s bold missions, doing what no one has done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe Program Scientist at NASA, “We look forward to the first update on its condition. “We can’t wait to get the first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving science data in the coming weeks.”
