Solar Probe +

[MeteorWayne]

Science@NASA


Sept. 2, 2010: NASA's daring plan to visit the sun took a giant leap forward today with the selection of five key science investigations for the Solar Probe+ spacecraft.

Slated to launch no later than 2018, the smart car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the atmosphere of the sun, aiming to solve some of the biggest mysteries of solar physics. Today's announcement means that researchers can begin building sensors for unprecedented in situ measurements of the solar system's innermost frontier.

"Solar Probe+ is going where no spacecraft has gone before," says Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe+ program scientist at NASA HQ. "For the first time, we'll be able to 'touch, taste and smell' the sun."
...

--SWEAP, the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation: The most abundant particles in the solar wind are electrons, protons and helium ions. SWEAP will count these particles and measure their properties, even "sweeping up" some of them in a special Solar Probe Cup for direct analysis. The principal investigator is Justin C. Kasper of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.


--WISPR, the Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe Plus: WISPR is a telescope that will make 3D images of the sun's atmosphere similar to medical CAT scans. WISPR can actually see the solar wind, allowing it to image clouds and shock waves as they approach and pass the spacecraft. This telescope is an important complement to the spacecraft's in situ instruments, which sample the plasmas that WISPR images. The principal investigator is Russell Howard of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.

--FIELDS, The Fields Investigation for Solar Probe Plus: This instrument will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves which course through the sun's atmospheric plasma. FIELDS also turns Solar Probe Plus into a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft’s antenna. The principal investigator is Stuart Bale of the University of California in Berkeley.

--ISIS, Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun: The ISIS EPI-Hi and EPI-Lo instruments will monitor electrons, protons and ions which are accelerated to high energies by shock waves in the sun's atmosphere. These are the very same particles that pose a threat to astronauts in space, disable satellites, and ionize Earth's upper atmosphere.

 

[EarthlingX]

SDC : NASA Aims to Plunge Car-Sized Probe Into the Sun

By SPACE.com Staff

posted: 02 September 2010
06:49 pm ET



NASA is developing an ambitious new mission to plunge a car-sized probe directly into the sun's atmosphere, boldly going where no spacecraft has gone before.

The spacecraft, called Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch no later than 2018, NASA announced Thursday.

The space agency has picked the five science experiments to ride aboard the new sun-exploring spacecraft. The instruments include a solar wind particle detector, a 3-D camera, and a device to measure the sun's magnetic field, among other tools.

Closest-Ever Probe of Sun is New NASA Mission
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJvG1K1N9M[/youtube]

NASAtelevision | September 03, 2010

Solar Probe Plus, a new NASA mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before, is officially underway. The spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere at approximately 4 million miles from the surface into a region no
other spacecraft has ever encountered.

 

[3488]

This is one hell of a mission. :mrgreen:

The 3D views of solar CMEs & possibly prominences passing past the spacecraft will be spectacular. The magnetic fields results should be interesting that close in.

Animation of Solar Probe + leaving Earth.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDmveyxjQw[/youtube]

Solar Probe + Venus encounter.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMDnNSTPpY[/youtube]

Solar Probe + retracting solar arrays as draws close to the Sun.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwQ16aDy4w[/youtube]

Wonder if launching at night would be easier at keeping the temperatures down :?: :lol: :?: :lol: :?: :lol: :shock: :?

Andrew Brown.

 

[EarthlingX]

This is one hell of a mission. :mrgreen:

Very nicely put

And nice videos

Wonder if launching at night would be easier at keeping the temperatures down :?: :lol: :?: :lol: :?: :lol: :shock: :?

Yea, and then keeping it on the night (dark) side of the Sun :lol:

 

[EarthlingX]

www.physorg.com : NRL's wide-field imager selected for Solar Probe Plus mission

September 29, 2010

By Donna McKinney


Artist's concept of the Solar Probe Plus approaching the sun. Credit: NASA

NASA has chosen the Naval Research Laboratory's Wide-field Imager to be part of the Solar Probe Plus mission slated for launch no later than 2018. The Solar Probe Plus, a small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately four million miles from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered in an effort to unlock the sun's biggest mysteries.

...

NRL's Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) is one of five science investigations selected by NASA for this mission. It is the only optical investigation because the solar environment is so hot the instruments need to be tucked behind a heat shield. NRL's Dr. Russell Howard, the principal investigator, says, "This is an extremely exciting mission - no other spacecraft has ever gone this close - it is like the early voyagers of the earth, we don't really know what to expect, but we know, whatever it is, it is going to be spectacular."

The imager is a telescope, which looks off to the side of the heat shield, and will make 2-D images of the sun's corona as the spacecraft flies through. But like a medical CAT scan, the orbit of the spacecraft through the corona will enable 3-D images and a determination of the 3-D structure of the corona. The experiment actually will see the solar wind and provide 3-D images of clouds and shocks as they approach and pass the spacecraft. "We'll be flying through the structures that we've only seen from 100 million miles away. We'll be able to see all the phenomena (mass ejections, streamers, shocks, comets, and dust) up close. Other instruments will be able to measure the magnetic and electric fields and the plasma itself," explains Howard. This investigation complements instruments on the spacecraft by providing direct measurements of the plasma far away as well as near the spacecraft - the same plasma the other instruments sample.

The other four investigations chosen for the Solar Probe Plus mission include:

...

 

[EarthlingX]

SDC : NASA Can't Afford Senate's Timeline for Solar Probe

By Amy Klamper
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 05 October 2010
06:09 pm ET



WASHINGTON — While some members of Congress would like to see NASA launch the Solar Probe Plus mission by 2015, agency officials say they lack the funding needed to finish and fly the solar spacecraft before 2018.

"This is a $1.2 billion program," said Richard Fisher, heliophysics division chief for NASA's Science Mission Directorate here, of the car-sized solar spacecraft. "We don't get enough budget between now and 2015 to launch it. That was an idea, but it's a concept; it isn't a real possibility."

NASA's current heliophysics budget of nearly $630 million pays for more than a dozen ongoing missions, including the $850 million Solar Dynamics Observatory that launched in February, and funds development of four more missions slated to launch between 2012 and 2014.

Under the spending plan NASA sent to Congress in February, the heliophysics division's budget is forecast to steadily rise to $750 million by 2015. A big part of that planned increase is expected to go to the Living with a Star program, under which NASA is funding preliminary work on Solar Probe Plus.

...

During a two-day public meeting of the NASA Advisory Council heliophysics subcommittee Sept. 20-21, Fisher said he expects building, launching and operating such a technically challenging mission to cost between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion.

"We have to not undertake more than we can complete in that cost envelope, and we have to launch it on time because the planetary windows are 19 months apart," Fisher told the panel.

...

NASA has budgeted a total of $420 million for Solar Probe Plus over the next five years, well under half what it would need to spend to make a 2015 launch.

While NASA's annual spending on Solar Probe Plus will not exceed $100 until 2013 under current plans, Fisher said the agency is taking important steps now to ensure the mission's success.

...