Delta-IV Heavy Lofts NASA's Parker Solar Probe on Landmark Mission to the SunBy Mike Killian, on August 12th, 2018
(...) It will check in 3 times a week while sweeping through the corona, and will downlink data back to Earth once it’s safely through, via NASA’s Deep Space Network (maximum downlink rate from the spacecraft is 555 kilobits per second (kbps)).
Health and status telemetry will be sent to Earth three times per week during cruise phases of the mission. During the solar encounter phase, PSP will talk to Earth three times per week by transmitting a beacon tone to indicate its health and status.
During the science data downlink period, PSP will transmit high rate science data to the ground on a daily basis, from 10 to 24 hours per day
“Exploring the Sun’s corona with a spacecraft has been one of the hardest challenges for space exploration,” said Nicola Fox, project scientist at APL. “We’re finally going to be able to answer questions about the corona and solar wind raised by Gene Parker in 1958 – using a spacecraft that bears his name – and I can’t wait to find out what discoveries we make. The science will be remarkable.”
Dr Parker was actually at the launch too, the only living person to ever have a NASA spacecraft and mission named after him.
And it was his first rocket launch, too.
A plaque dedicating the mission to Parker was attached to the spacecraft in May, which includes a quote from the renowned physicist – “Let’s see what lies ahead.” It also holds more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to travel with the spacecraft to the Sun.
http://www.americaspace.com/2018/08/12/delta-iv-heavy-lofts-nasas-parker-solar-probe-on-landmark-mission-to-the-sun/#more-105627
Wątek: Parker Solar Probe (Przeczytany 61081 razy)