Parker Solar Probe

[Orionid]

                                         

Planowana data startu: 4 sierpnia 2018 (okno startowe 10:17-11:02 CEST)
EDIT: NET 6 sierpnia 2018 (okno startowe ~10:17-11:02 CEST)
EDIT:       11 sierpnia 2018 (okno startowe 09:48-10:37 CEST)
EDIT:       11 sierpnia 2018 (okno startowe 09:33-10:38 CEST)
EDIT:       11 sierpnia 2018 planowany start o 09:53 CEST
EDIT:       11 sierpnia 2018 planowany start o 10:28 CEST
Start:       12 sierpnia 2018 o 09:31 CEST

Ładunek: sonda do badania korony słonecznej Parker Solar Probe

Masa ładunku: startowa    685 kg , bez paliwa 555 kg , masa aparatury naukowej 50 kg

Orbita docelowa: heliocentryczna: perihelium  0.040 AU (6.0 mln km) , aphelium 0.730 AU (109.3 mln km)
                         Inklinacja   3.4°
                         Okres obiegu Słońca 88 d

Rakieta: Delta-4H/Star-48BV

Platforma startowa: SLC-37B , Cape Canaveral

Zasilanie: dwie pary baterii słonecznych oraz akumulator

Planowany czas misji : 6 lat, 321 dni

Podczas 24 okrążeń Słońca sonda 7-krotnie wykona manewry grawitacyjne przy Wenus, co pozwoli trzykrotnie zredukować perihelium orbity do około 6,28 miliona km

Aktualizacje ULA https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/delta-iv-parker-solar-probe
Parker Solar Probe (PSP, Solar Probe Plus, SPP
Parker Solar Probe Solar Probe +
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Solar_Probe
Eugene_Parker

[Orionid]

Start nie wcześniej jak 6 sierpnia.

Parker Solar Probe Launch No Earlier Than Aug. 6, 2018
Linda Herridge Posted on July 18, 2018

NASA now is targeting launch of the Parker Solar Probe no earlier than Aug. 6, 2018. Additional time was needed to evaluate the configuration of a cable clamp on the payload fairing. (...)

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/07/18/parker-solar-probe-launch-no-earlier-than-aug-6-2018/

[kanarkusmaximus]

Okienko startowe jest do 19 sierpnia. Zdążą!

[Orionid]

O ochronie cieplnej sondy

Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?
July 19, 2018




NASA's Parker Solar Probe is heading to the Sun. Why won't the spacecraft melt? Thermal Protection System Engineer Betsy Congdon (Johns Hopkins APL) outlines why Parker can take the heat. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

(...)

The Shield That Protects It

Of course, thousands of degrees Fahrenheit is still fantastically hot. (For comparison, lava from volcano eruptions can be anywhere between 1,300 and 2,200 F (700 and 1,200 C)  And to withstand that heat, Parker Solar Probe makes use of a heat shield known as the Thermal Protection System, or TPS, which is 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter and 4.5 inches (about 115 mm) thick. Those few inches of protection mean that just on the other side of the shield, the spacecraft body will sit at a comfortable 85 F (30 C).

The TPS was designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and was built at Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies, using a carbon composite foam sandwiched between two carbon plates. This lightweight insulation will be accompanied by a finishing touch of white ceramic paint on the sun-facing plate, to reflect as much heat as possible. Tested to withstand up to 3,000 F (1,650 C), the TPS can handle any heat the Sun can send its way, keeping almost all instrumentation safe.




Betsy Congdon of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab is the lead thermal engineer on the heat shield that NASA's Parker Solar Probe will use to protect itself against the Sun. The shield is so robust, Congdon can use a blowtorch on one side and the other side remains cool enough to touch. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
(...)

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-sun-why-won-t-parker-solar-probe-melt

[Orionid]

Parker Solar Probe Launch Targeted for Aug. 11
Author Anna Heiney Posted on July 24, 2018

NASA and its mission partners are targeting Aug. 11 for the launch of the Parker Solar Probe mission to the Sun. The 45-minute launch window will open at 3:48 a.m. EDT. During final inspections following the encapsulation of the spacecraft, a small strip of foam was found inside the fairing and additional time is needed for inspection.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/07/24/parker-solar-probe-launch-targeted-for-aug-11/

[Orionid]

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the Curious Case of the Hot Corona
July 27, 2018



Explaining the corona’s secrets

Parker Solar Probe will test two chief theories to explain coronal heating. The outer layers of the Sun are constantly boiling and roil with mechanical energy. As massive cells of charged plasma churn through the Sun — much the way distinct bubbles roll up through a pot of boiling water — their fluid motion generates complex magnetic fields that extend far up into the corona. Somehow, the tangled fields channel this ferocious energy into the corona as heat — how they do so is what each theory attempts to explain.


A closeup of the Sun’s convective, or boiling, motion, with a small sunspot forming on the right, from Hinode, a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The outer layers of the Sun are constantly boiling and roil with mechanical energy. This fluid motion generates complex magnetic fields that extend far up into the corona. Credits: NASA/JAXA/Hinode

The two theories aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. In fact, to complicate matters, many scientists think both may be involved in heating the corona. Sometimes, for example, the magnetic reconnection that sets off a nanoflare could also launch Alfvén waves, which then further heat surrounding plasma.

The other big question is, how often do these processes happen — constantly or in distinct bursts? Answering that requires a level of detail we don’t have from 93 million miles away.

“We’re going close to the heating, and there are times Parker Solar Probe will co-rotate, or orbit the Sun at the same speed the Sun itself rotates,” said Eric Christian, a space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and member of the mission’s science team. “That’s an important part of the science. By hovering over the same spot, we’ll see the evolution of heating.” (...)




The coronal heating problem remains one of the greatest unanswered questions in astrophysics. Learn how astronomers first discovered evidence for this mystery during an eclipse in the 1800s, and what scientists today think could explain it. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng

(...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-parker-solar-probe-and-the-curious-case-of-the-hot-corona

[Orionid]

Parker Solar Probe and the Birth of the Solar Wind
July 30, 2018

(...) "If we can measure the slow solar wind, and find it comes from the boundary between open and closed magnetic fields, then that supports the idea that magnetic reconnection gives rise to the slow solar wind," Klimchuk said.

Parker Solar Probe’s instruments will collect downstream evidence of magnetic reconnection — a tell-tale sign that the closed-field-to-open-field theory is at play. Specific kinds of reconnection twist the resulting magnetic field in different ways, and Parker’s instruments will measure the twists in these fields early on, before they have had much time to be distorted. In addition, close-up images of the nascent solar wind will tell us how coronal structures evolve as they propagate outward. This will help us answer a long-standing question whether the solar wind is a continuous or intermittent flow. (...)

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/parker-solar-probe-and-the-birth-of-the-solar-wind

[Orionid]

Wczoraj sonda dotarła na wyrzutnię i została zintegrowana z rakietą.

Solar probe moves into launch position at Cape Canaveral
July 31, 2018


Nestled inside the nose cone of its Delta 4-Heavy launcher, Parker Solar Probe departs its processing facility in Titusville, Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer / kenkremer.com / spaceupclose.com

(...) Riding a slow-moving over-the-road transporter, the spacecraft, its solid-fueled Star 48BV upper stage, and protective aerodynamic fairing departed the Astrotech spacecraft processing facility in Titusville, Florida, late Monday for an overnight journey to the Complex 37B launch pad at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The convoy arrived at the launch pad before dawn Tuesday, and a heavy-lifting crane hooked to the 63-foot-tall (19-meter) fairing to hoist it atop a Delta 4-Heavy rocket, capping assembly of the launcher ahead of a predawn blastoff scheduled for Aug. 11. (...)

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/07/31/solar-probe-moves-into-launch-position-at-cape-canaveral/

[Orionid]

Okno startowe zostało przedłużone do 23 sierpnia 2018.

Parker Solar Probe Launch Window Extended to August 23
Author Sarah Frazier Posted on August 2, 2018

NASA and its mission partners have analyzed and approved an extended launch window for Parker Solar Probe until Aug. 23, 2018 (previously Aug. 19). The spacecraft is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 11, 2018, at 3:48 a.m. with a window of 45 minutes.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/08/02/parker-solar-probe-launch-window-extended-to-august-23/

[Orionid]

Prepping to Launch for the Sun
July 31, 2018

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has cleared the final procedures in the clean room before its move to the launch pad, where it will be integrated onto its launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy. This is an historic mission that will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds. Parker Solar Probe will travel through the Sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.

Seen here inside one half of its 62.7-foot tall fairing, the Parker Solar Probe was encapsulated on July 16, 2018, in preparation for the move from Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it will be integrated onto its launch vehicle for its launch that is targeted for August 11, 2018.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/prepping-to-launch-for-the-sun

[Orionid]

Parker Solar Probe dotknie Słońca
BY ALEKSANDER FIUK ON 3 SIERPNIA 2018




Nagranie ukazujące trajektorię lotu Parker Solar Probe / APL

(...) W celu dokonania odpowiednich pomiarów sonda musi zbliżyć się na odległość 0,04 AU (6.2 mln km) od fotosfery Słońca, uznawanej umownie za jego powierzchnię. Temperatura, sięgająca w koronie słonecznej nawet miliona stopni Celsjusza, stanowi olbrzymie wyzwanie dla konstruktorów sondy. Jednakże gęstość materii jest niewielka, a przez to ciepło przekazywane do sondy okazuje się być na tyle małym, by skonstruowana przez inżynierów z APL (Applied Physics Laboratory) osłona termiczna była w stanie ochronić PSP przed katastrofalnymi skutkami, jakie mogłoby nieść zbliżenie się do Słońca na taką odległość. „Wielkie Frisbee”, jak nazywają osłonę członkowie zespołu z APL, ma około 2,5 metra średnicy, waży 73 kilogramy i zostało skonstruowane przez pokrycie pianki węglowej o grubości 11,5 cm wzmocnionym kompozytem węglowo-węglowym z obu stron. Ponadto, PSP został wyposażony w wodny system chłodzący o zamkniętym obiegu, który ma za zadanie zapobiegać przegrzaniu komponentów zarówno wewnątrz sondy, jak i wysuwanych paneli słonecznych. W przeciwieństwie do zdecydowanej większości statków kosmicznych, PSP nie może sobie pozwolić na operowanie na stale rozłożonych panelach, ponieważ groziłoby to ich zniszczeniem przez wiatr słoneczny. Z tego powodu są one umieszczone na ramionach wyposażonych w przeguby, a komputer pokładowy ma za zadanie ciągłe monitorowanie i sterowanie wychyleniem paneli. Również aparatura naukowa musiała zostać zaprojektowana tak, by wytrzymać trudne warunki pracy – użyte zostały nadstopy zawierające m.in. tytan, cyrkon i molibden. (...)

https://kosmonauta.net/2018/08/parker-solar-probe-dotknie-slonca/

[kanarkusmaximus]

Ta wizualizacja orbity jest bardzo ciekawa!

[mss]

Aktualnie start 11 sierpnia 2018 (okno startowe 09:33-10:38 CEST).

[kanarkusmaximus]

Czy okienko startowe jest nadal do 19 sierpnia?

[mss]

Już trwa do 23 sierpnia.

Informacja o tym była już od 02 sierpnia: http://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=937.msg120924#msg120924 !