Science@NASA: Solar Probe+ to Plunge Directly into Sun

[bystander]

Solar Probe+ to Plunge Directly into Sun's Atmosphere
NASA Science News | 02 Sep 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."

Last year, NASA invited top researchers around the world to submit proposals detailing possible science investigations for the pioneering spacecraft. Thirteen proposals were received and five have been selected:

• 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.
  
  Solar Probe+ Observatory Scientist: This was a proposal not for an instrument, but for a person. The principal investigator, Marco Velli, becomes the mission's Observatory Scientist. In the years ahead, he will become deeply familiar with the spacecraft and its construction, helping to ensure that adjacent in situ instruments do not interfere with one another as they sample the solar environment. He will also guide the mission's "big picture" science investigations after Solar Probe+ enters the sun's atmosphere.

Living with a Star Program
NASA Plans to Visit the Sun
Solar Probe Plus - NASA GSFC
Solar Probe Plus - JHU APL

[Ann]

I wonder how they will keep that probe from melting or from breaking down in other ways, as it plunges into the Sun's atmosphere.

I'm reminded of Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Golden Apples of the Sun", where astronauts steer their spaceship directly into the Sun to, literally, sccop up some of the "golden apples" of the Sun. And then they would bring these "Sun fruits" home again to the Earth for analysis. The "apples" would be the Sun's atmosphere or general innards, I suppose.

Anyway, I always thought that that was one of the stupidest stories I had ever read.


Sun fruit?

Ann

[neufer]

• Life's a Glitch, Then You Die

% On December 31, 1999, Dick Clark celebrates New Year's Rockin' Eve
% in Springfield instead of Times Square. Homer, the Springfield
% Nuclear Power Plant's Y2K compliance officer, declares that he
% fixed every computer at the plant. Unfortunately, Homer didn't fix
% his own computer, which creates a computer virus that spreads
% across the world. Chaos ensues. Widespread looting begins.
% The Simpsons happen upon Krusty, who is having a Y2K crisis
% of his own. His pacemaker is stuck in the "hummingbird" mode.
% Krusty lifts himself in the air briefly by flapping his arms,
% before collapsing on the ground.

Bart: [tearfully] Krusty! [perks up] Hey, a note.
___ [removes it from Krusty's shirt pocket and reads it]
___ You have been selected for "Operation Exodus."

Lisa: They're evacuating the Earth! We're saved!

Homer: Thank you, sweet clown. In death you saved us all.
___ [they walk away]

Krusty: [offscreen] I'm not dead.

Homer: I can still hear his voice on the wind.

-- "Treehouse of Horror X"

% Bart is the first to see the Exodus rocket. A lone sentry stands
% guard at the bottom of the gantry; his job is to make sure only the
% invited people get on board. A long line forms in front of the
% guard post, and most of the people are A-list celebrities and
% businessmen: Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Michele Kwan, and more.
% Lisa quickly figures out the plan: Start a new civilization, seeded
% with today's "best and brightest" people. Homer figures that
% includes the Simpsons.
%
% The move to the head of the line.

Guard: Name, please.

Homer: Certainly. I am ... the, uh, piano genius from the movie,
___ "Shine."

Guard: Uh-huh. And your name is?

Homer: Uh ... Shiney McShine?

Lisa: Actually, he's Homer Simpson. That's Bart, I'm Lisa.

Guard: Lisa Simpson? Ah, you're the ship's proofreader; welcome
___ aboard. Now, before you enter, you're going to have to
___ make a very difficult choice. You're only allowed to take
___ one parent with you--

Lisa: Mom.
___ [Marge (carrying Maggie) and Lisa get in the gantry's elevator]

Marge: Love you lots.

Homer: Goodbye, Lisa. Remember me as I am
___ -- filled with murderous rage.

-- "Treehouse of Horror X"

% The rocket lifts off, and heads to Mars. Homer and Bart are
% resigned to their fates. At least they had "long, full lives."
% Well, at least Homer did.
%
% Their spirits lift when they see another spaceship, with nobody
% guarding it. They quickly run aboard. Both rockets streak
% away from the Earth. Homer looks through a porthole,
% still unable to believe all the trouble he caused.
% Bart advises him to let the past go.

Homer: All that counts is that we're alive and rubbing elbows with
___ the greats. [gasps] Ooh, there's Ross Perot, Dr. Laura, Spike Lee.

Bart: Wait a minute, they're not so great.

Homer: Okay but there's Dan Quayle, Courtney Love, [increasing panic],
___ Tonya Harding, Al Sharpton, Ah! Tom Arnold! What the hell's going on?

Bart: [looking out porthole] Wait! Only that ship's going to Mars.
___ Ours is headed for the sun.

Arnold: Yeah, ain't that a kick in the teeth? I mean, my shows
___ weren't great but I never tied people up and forced them
___ to watch. And I could've, because I'm a big guy and I'm
___ good with knots.

Homer: So we're all going to die?

Arnold: 'Fraid so, but, hey, the grub's pretty good, huh?
___ [chuckles, and then pours a can of peaches in his mouth]

Homer: The sun? That's the hottest place on Earth.

Shore: Gonna work on my tannage, buddy.

Arnold: Pauly Shore? Wow! Hey, we should do a show together,
___ man. That's a sure cure for the blues!

-- The cure's worse than the disease, "Treehouse of Horror X"

% Rosie O'Donnell appears, and implores the ship's passengers to sing
% along to "Clang, Clang, Clang." Everyone breaks into song, and Bart
% reassures his Dad that they'll be dead in five minutes. "Not fast
% enough," says Homer, and pushes the seat's eject button.
% As he and Bart float through the vacuum of space,
% their heads inflate like balloons.
% Offscreen, they pop.

[bystander]

CfA Will Play Major Role in Mission to "Touch" the Sun
Center for Astrophysics | 14 Sept 2010

When NASA’s Solar Probe Plus (SPP) launches before the end of the decade, it will carry a suite of cutting-edge scientific instruments. Only one – the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation – will directly sample the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Designed by scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), part of SWEAP will extend beyond the probe’s heat shield to scoop up some of the Sun’s tenuous gases.

“While the other instruments are hidden, we’ll be right out there getting blasted by the Sun, literally “touching” a star for the first time,” said Justin Kasper, SWEAP principal investigator and Smithsonian astronomer.

On Sept. 2, NASA announced the funding of five SPP proposals. The SWEAP proposal will receive $67 million for instrument design and development.

Solar Probe Plus promises to transform our understanding of our home star and its effects on the solar system. It will get closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, swooping to within four million miles.

At closest approach, the Sun will appear more than 20 times wider than it does on Earth, stretching across more than 10 degrees of the sky. It will bathe SPP in 500 times more light than we see on Earth. As a result, the probe will have to withstand temperatures exceeding 2,550 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as blasts of radiation and particles. A revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield will protect the spacecraft.

SPP will plunge through the Sun’s outer atmosphere not once but repeatedly. In order to be able to observe the atmosphere under all conditions, the SWEAP Solar Probe Cup will look around the heat shield directly at the Sun. The SWEAP Solar Probe Analyzers will sit in the shadow on either side of the heat shield and make detailed measurements of the atmosphere flowing around the heat shield. On each dive, SWEAP will scoop up the main components of the corona and solar wind and determine quantities such as their speed, temperature, and relative abundance.

CfA researchers have devoted significant resources to finding materials able to not only survive a scorching, but also return useful data. That groundwork included testing materials in a furnace at temperatures up to 4,700 degrees F.

“We took enormous steps to reduce NASA’s risk in accepting the proposal to fly this instrument,” said CfA deputy director Roger Brissenden.

The team found two materials that could potentially be used to build SWEAP: tungsten and doped, single-crystal silicon carbide. (Silicon carbide has a wide variety of commercial uses, including drill bits and other cutting tools.)

The design and development of SWEAP represents a promising expansion of CfA’s solar astronomy program. CfA is well known for its breadth of astronomical research, covering all regions of the spectrum from low-energy radio waves to harsh gamma rays. SWEAP will add direct sampling and measuring to the Center’s expertise.

“This is an exciting direction for solar astronomy at CfA. I view it as a natural progression from creating X-ray optics that look at the Sun, to direct measurements,” said Brissenden.

[Beyond]

SOLAR PROBE TO PLUNGE DIRECTLY INTO SUN

I can see the TV listing now >A new science show called "Sun Trek", one show and it's over. But what rateings

[neufer]

SOLAR PROBE TO PLUNGE DIRECTLY INTO SUN

I can see the TV listing now
A new science show called "Sun Trek", one show and it's over.
But what rateings

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Sun and returning him safely to the Earth. If we are to go only half way, reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my judgment it would be better not to go at all. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

[Ann]

And never will astronauts have returned to the Earth with such a magnificent tan!

Ann

[neufer]

And never will astronauts have returned to the Earth with such a magnificent tan!

Will there be a good spot to land in ten years though?

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 31&t=21109

[BMAONE23]

There sure will be a good spot to land, they're landing at night

[bystander]

NASA Awards CU-Boulder $6.7 Million to Design Instruments for Mission to Sun
University of Colorado, Boulder | 15 Sept 2010

A team from the University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $6.7 million from NASA to design, develop and test instruments for the fastest space probe ever built, one that will orbit 22 times closer to the sun than Earth and well inside the orbit of Mercury to better understand how the sun ticks.
...
CU-Boulder's role in the mission is for a portion of the Fields Experiment that is led by the University of California, Berkeley, and which will measure electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions and shock waves traveling through the sun's atmospheric plasma. Headed by Robert Ergun of CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the CU team will design and test key components of the electrical and magnetic field instruments, including the spacecraft's antennas and the onboard signal and data processing hardware.

[bystander]

NRL's Wide-field Imager Selected for Solar Probe Plus Mission
Naval Research Laboratory | 28 Sept 2010

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.

For decades, scientists have known that the corona, or the outer atmosphere, is several hundreds of times hotter than the visible solar surface and that the solar wind accelerates up to supersonic speeds as it travels through the corona. In the Solar Probe Plus mission, scientists hope to find answers to the questions: why is the solar corona so much hotter than the photosphere? And how is the solar wind accelerated? The answers to these questions can be obtained only through in-situ measurements of the solar wind down in the corona.

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.