Solar Probe+

Palomar · 2004-07-20 12:33:16

http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/]SBird drew this to my attention in late March 2004...

...in the "Heliopolis" thread. We discussed it over the next couple of days. I thought I'd start a thread devoted to it now. SBird should get the credit for starting this thread...I hope he'll return soon!

I'm not sure how many folks here might have seen the link he provided then and the brief discussion, which is why I'm starting this thread of course.

Anyway, in the "Heliopolis" thread conversation I noted what a lackluster name for such a mission -- especially as it is our first visit to our star! SBird suggested it be named "Dante"; I suggested "Helioscreamer" (including painting orange and yellow flames all around the cone of it, ala custom car design). :laugh:

I've not seen any news updates regarding Solar Probe. But happy reading at the web site!

--Cindy

P.S.: Any other suggestions for naming this probe? SBird said simply calling it "Solar Probe" reminded him of a name for a generic beer can.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-20 17:38:01

As far as a name goes, how about "StarSkimmer" or "Helioprobe"?
???

SBird · 2004-08-06 12:31:53

I suppose you could also takea page from David Brin and call it Sundiver.

Palomar · 2004-08-10 12:02:18

I suppose you could also takea page from David Brin and call it Sundiver.

*They should more aggressively publicize this mission. Have elementary school kids suggest names in a big contest, etc., like they did for the MERs; grand-prize winner, couple of runners-up.

Never heard of David Brin. Time to Google...

--Cindy

SBird · 2004-08-10 12:06:45

Brin is a sci-fi author. His most famous book is Startide rising. Most of his books are set un a universe where humans are a small, rather backwards bit player in a huge galactic civilization. Sundiver was one of his early novels set in this universe about a joint human-alien mission that sends a spaceship into the photoshere of the sun.

Brin's a rather lousy writer but he comes up with some really good ideas, though.

cIclops · 2008-05-13 03:08:21

Finally, after all this time!

APL to Send a Probe to the Sun - 1 May 2008

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is sending a spacecraft closer to the sun than any probe has ever gone – and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system.
NASA has tapped APL to develop the ambitious Solar Probe mission, which will study the streams of charged particles the sun hurls into space from a vantage point within the sun’s corona – its outer atmosphere – where the processes that heat the corona and produce solar wind occur. At closest approach Solar Probe would zip past the sun at 125 miles per second, protected by a carbon-composite heat shield that must withstand up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit and survive blasts of radiation and energized dust at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft.
Experts in the U.S. and abroad have grappled with this mission concept for more than 30 years, running into seemingly insurmountable technology and budgetary limitations. But in February an APL-led team completed a Solar Probe engineering and mission design study at NASA’s request, detailing just how the robotic mission could be accomplished. The study team used an APL-led 2005 study as its baseline, but then significantly altered the concept to meet challenging cost and technical conditions provided by NASA.
“We knew we were on the right track,” says Andrew Dantzler, Solar Probe project manager at APL. “Now we’ve put it all together in an innovative package; the technology is within reach, the concept is feasible and the entire mission can be done for less than $750 million [in fiscal 2007 dollars], or about the cost of a medium-class planetary mission. NASA decided it was time.”
APL will design and build the spacecraft, on a schedule to launch in 2015. The compact, solar-powered probe would weigh about 1,000 pounds; preliminary designs include a 9-foot-diameter, 6-inch-thick, carbon-foam-filled solar shield atop the spacecraft body. Two sets of solar arrays would retract or extend as the spacecraft swings toward or away from the sun during several loops around the inner solar system, making sure the panels stay at proper temperatures and power levels. At its closest passes the spacecraft must survive solar intensity more than 500 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth.
Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the sun, coming as close as 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers) to the sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about eight times closer than any spacecraft has come before.

Mission page

125 miles per second (200 kms/sec) - that's ridiculous speed!

DEChengst · 2008-05-13 08:23:09

Great news. Let's set the controls for the heart of the sun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_0iZQ-TuA

cIclops · 2008-05-13 13:33:54

The extraordinary mission trajectory!

From Mission Engineering Study Report (PDF 39MB) - 10 Mar 2008

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#1 2004-07-20 12:33:16

Re: Solar Probe+

#2 2004-07-20 17:38:01

Re: Solar Probe+

#3 2004-08-06 12:31:53

Re: Solar Probe+

#4 2004-08-10 12:02:18

Re: Solar Probe+

#5 2004-08-10 12:06:45

Re: Solar Probe+

#6 2008-05-13 03:08:21

Re: Solar Probe+

#7 2008-05-13 08:23:09

Re: Solar Probe+

#8 2008-05-13 13:33:54

Re: Solar Probe+

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