NASA first mission to the sun, has begun final preparations for its launch on July 31, according to a statement by the space agency. The Parker Solar Probe will be launched from Launch Complex-37 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.
After the launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone.
It will face brutal heat and radiation, and reveal fundamental science behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring of material from the Sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects space weather near Earth.
At Astrotech Space Operations in Florida, the Parker Solar Probe will continue testing, and eventually undergo final assembly and mating to the third stage of the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.
For the next several months, the spacecraft will undergo comprehensive testing; just prior to being fueled, one of the most critical elements of the spacecraft, the thermal protection system (TPS), or heat shield, will be installed.
The TPS is the breakthrough technology that will allow Parker Solar Probe to survive the temperatures in the Sun’s corona, just 3.8 million miles from the surface of our star.
“The installation of the TPS will be our final major step before encapsulation and integration onto the launch vehicle,” Andy Driesman, Parker Solar Probe project manager from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland said in the statment.
Throughout its seven-year mission, Parker Solar Probe will explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere and make critical observations to answer decades-old questions about the physics of stars.
Its data will also be useful in improving forecasts of major eruptions on the Sun and the subsequent space weather events that impact technology on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.
In March, NASA has invited people around the world to submit their names online, which would be placed on a microchip aboard Parker Solar Probe.