A Journey To The Centre Of Solar System!

On August 12, 2018 NASA's Parker solar probe started its seven year long journey to unlock the mysteries of our sun's fiery outer atmosphere and its effects on space weather. The liftoff of world's first solar mission known as'touch the sun'took place from space launch complex 37 at Cape Canaveral airforce station in the US.

The car sized spacecraft will travel directly into the sun's atmosphere, about four million miles from it's surface, and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft had ever come before.The USD 1.5 billion mission will perform the closest ever observations of a star when it travels through the sun's out atmosphere called Corona. It is the region of the sun only seen from earth when the moon blocks out the sun's bright face during total lunar eclipse. The Corona holds answers to many of scientist's outstanding questions about the sun's activity and processes.

The probe will make 24 passes through the Corona during its seven year mission. The mission will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the Corona and how processes there will ultimately affect near earth space.

Why the mission is safe?

Inside the Corona, the spacecraft will travel through material with temperatures greater than several million degrees Celsius while being bombarded with intense sunlight.

A sun skimming mission like Parker Solar Probe had been a dream of scientists for decades, but only recently had the required technology like the custom heat shield, solar array cooling system, and fault management system been available to make such mission reality. The probe has been designed to withstand extreme conditions and temperature fluctuations for the mission.

The probe makes use of a heat shield known as theThermal Protection System, or TPS, which is 8 feet in diameter and 4.5 inches thick, carrying a carbon composite foam sandwiched between two carbon plates. This lightweight insulation is accompanied by a finished touch of white ceramic paint on the sun facing plate, to reflect as much heat as possible.Thus, surface of the heat shield that faces the sun will only get heated to about 1400 degree celsius.To prevent the internal wiring from getting melt, wires are made from Niobium, and sapphire crystal tubes were used for suspending them.

By the combinations of such materials and extraordinary brains from around the globe, the Parker Solar Probe became reality and hopefully would help solving a lot of mysteries of our solar system and will do betterment of mankind in near future.