The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first-ever mission into a part of the Sun’s atmosphere called the corona. Here it will directly explore solar processes that are key to understanding and forecasting space weather events that can impact life on Earth.
Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Renowned physicist Eugene Parker watches the launch of the spacecraft that bears his name – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – early in the morning on Aug. 12, 2018, from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Credits: NASA/Glenn Benson
Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.
Roughly the size of a small car, the spacecraft lifted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At 5:33 a.m., the mission operations manager reported that the spacecraft was healthy and operating normally.
The mission’s findings will help researchers improve their forecasts of space weather events, which have the potential to damage satellites and harm astronauts on orbit, disrupt radio communications and, at their most severe, overwhelm power grids.
“This mission truly marks humanity’s first visit to a star that will have implications not just here on Earth, but how we better understand our universe,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We’ve accomplished something that decades ago, lived solely in the realm of science fiction.”
During the first week of its journey, the spacecraft will deploy its high-gain antenna and magnetometer boom. It also will perform the first of a two-part deployment of its electric field antennas. Instrument testing will begin in early September and last approximately four weeks, after which Parker Solar Probe can begin science operations.
“Today’s launch was the culmination of six decades of scientific study and millions of hours of effort,” said project manager Andy Driesman, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “Now, Parker Solar Probe is operating normally and on its way to begin a seven-year mission of extreme science.”
Over the next two months, Parker Solar Probe will fly towards Venus, performing its first Venus gravity assist in early October – a maneuver a bit like a handbrake turn – that whips the spacecraft around the planet, using Venus’s gravity to trim the spacecraft’s orbit tighter around the Sun. This first flyby will place Parker Solar Probe in position in early November to fly as close as 15 million miles from the Sun – within the blazing solar atmosphere, known as the corona – closer than anything made by humanity has ever gone before.
Throughout its seven-year mission, Parker Solar Probe will make six more Venus flybys and 24 total passes by the Sun, journeying steadily closer to the Sun until it makes its closest approach at 3.8 million miles. At this point, the probe will be moving at roughly 430,000 miles per hour, setting the record for the fastest-moving object made by humanity.
Parker Solar Probe will set its sights on the corona to solve long-standing, foundational mysteries of our Sun. What is the secret of the scorching corona, which is more than 300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface, thousands of miles below? What drives the supersonic solar wind – the constant stream of solar material that blows through the entire solar system? And finally, what accelerates solar energetic particles, which can reach speeds up to more than half the speed of light as they rocket away from the Sun?
Scientists have sought these answers for more than 60 years, but the investigation requires sending a probe right through the unrelenting heat of the corona. Today, this is finally possible with cutting-edge thermal engineering advances that can protect the mission on its daring journey.
“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.”
Parker Solar Probe carries four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and capture images of the solar wind. The University of California, Berkeley, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Princeton University in New Jersey lead these investigations.
Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed and built, and operates the spacecraft.
The mission is named for Eugene Parker, the physicist who first theorized the existence of the solar wind in 1958. It’s the first NASA mission to be named for a living researcher.
Physicist Eugene Parker watches the launch of the spacecraft that bears his name — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — early in the morning of Aug. 12, 2018.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL
A plaque dedicating the mission to Parker was attached to the spacecraft in May. It includes a quote from the renowned physicist – “Let’s see what lies ahead.” It also holds a memory card containing more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to travel with the spacecraft to the Sun.
For more information on Parker Solar Probe, go to:
-end-
Dwayne Brown / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov
Geoffrey Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618 / 240-228-8103
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618 / 240-228-8103
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu
Last Updated: Aug. 15, 2018
Editor: Karen Northon
Tags: Goddard Space Flight Center, Kennedy Space Center, Parker Solar Probe, Solar System, Sun
TRADUÇÃO
O foguete United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy lança a Sonda Parker Solar da NASA para tocar o Sol, domingo, 12 de agosto de 2018, do Complexo de Lançamento 37 na Estação da Força Aérea de Cabo Canaveral, na Flórida. A Sonda Solar Parker é a primeira missão da humanidade em uma parte da atmosfera do Sol chamada de corona. Aqui, ele irá explorar diretamente os processos solares que são fundamentais para entender e prever eventos climáticos espaciais que podem afetar a vida na Terra.
Créditos: NASA / Bill Ingalls
O renomado físico Eugene Parker assiste ao lançamento da espaçonave que leva seu nome - a Parker Solar Probe da NASA - no início da manhã de 12 de agosto de 2018, do Complexo de Lançamento 37 da Estação da Força Aérea de Cabo Canaveral, na Flórida.
Créditos: NASA / Glenn Benson
Horas antes do surgimento da estrela que estudará, o Parker Solar Probe , da NASA, foi lançado da Flórida no domingo para iniciar sua jornada rumo ao Sol, onde realizará uma missão histórica. A espaçonave transmitirá suas primeiras observações científicas em dezembro, iniciando uma revolução em nossa compreensão da estrela que possibilita a vida na Terra.
Aproximadamente do tamanho de um carro pequeno, a espaçonave decolou às 3:31 am EDT em um foguete Delta Launch Alliance da United Launch Alliance do Space Launch Complex-37 na Estação da Força Aérea de Cabo Canaveral. Às 5h33, o gerente de operações da missão relatou que a espaçonave estava saudável e operando normalmente.
As descobertas da missão ajudarão os pesquisadores a melhorar suas previsões de eventos climáticos espaciais, que têm o potencial de danificar satélites e prejudicar os astronautas em órbita, interromper as comunicações de rádio e, em sua maioria, sobrecarregar as redes elétricas.
"Esta missão marca verdadeiramente a primeira visita da humanidade a uma estrela que terá implicações não apenas aqui na Terra, mas como entender melhor nosso universo", disse Thomas Zurbuchen, administrador associado do Diretório de Missões Científicas da NASA. "Realizamos algo que décadas atrás vivia apenas no campo da ficção científica".
Durante a primeira semana de sua jornada, a espaçonave implantará sua antena de alto ganho e seu boom de magnetômetro . Também executará o primeiro de uma implementação em duas partes de suas antenas de campo elétrico. O teste de instrumentos começará no início de setembro e durará aproximadamente quatro semanas, após o qual a Parker Solar Probe poderá iniciar operações científicas.
"O lançamento de hoje foi o culminar de seis décadas de estudo científico e milhões de horas de esforço", disse o gerente de projeto Andy Driesman, do Laboratório de Física Aplicada da Universidade Johns Hopkins (APL) em Laurel, Maryland. “Agora, a Parker Solar Probe está operando normalmente e a caminho de iniciar uma missão de sete anos de ciência extrema.”
Nos próximos dois meses, a Parker Solar Probe voará em direção a Vênus, realizando sua primeira assistência à gravidade de Vênus no início de outubro - uma manobra um pouco parecida com um freio de mão - que gira a espaçonave ao redor do planeta, usando a gravidade de Vênus para cortar a órbita da espaçonave em torno do sol. Este primeiro sobrevôo colocará Parker Solar Probe em posição no início de novembro para voar a 15 milhões de milhas do Sol - dentro da ardente atmosfera solar, conhecida como corona - mais perto do que qualquer coisa que a humanidade já tenha feito antes.
Throughout its seven-year mission, Parker Solar Probe will make six more Venus flybys and 24 total passes by the Sun, journeying steadily closer to the Sun until it makes its closest approach at 3.8 million miles. At this point, the probe will be moving at roughly 430,000 miles per hour, setting the record for the fastest-moving object made by humanity.
Parker Solar Probe will set its sights on the corona to solve long-standing, foundational mysteries of our Sun. What is the secret of the scorching corona, which is more than 300 times hotter than the Sun’s surface, thousands of miles below? What drives the supersonic solar wind – the constant stream of solar material that blows through the entire solar system? And finally, what accelerates solar energetic particles, which can reach speeds up to more than half the speed of light as they rocket away from the Sun?
Scientists have sought these answers for more than 60 years, but the investigation requires sending a probe right through the unrelenting heat of the corona. Today, this is finally possible with cutting-edge thermal engineering advances that can protect the mission on its daring journey.
“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.”
Parker Solar Probe carries four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and capture images of the solar wind. The University of California, Berkeley, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Princeton University in New Jersey lead these investigations.
Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed and built, and operates the spacecraft.
The mission is named for Eugene Parker, the physicist who first theorized the existence of the solar wind in 1958. It’s the first NASA mission to be named for a living researcher.
Physicist Eugene Parker watches the launch of the spacecraft that bears his name — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — early in the morning of Aug. 12, 2018.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL
A plaque dedicating the mission to Parker was attached to the spacecraft in May. It includes a quote from the renowned physicist – “Let’s see what lies ahead.” It also holds a memory card containing more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to travel with the spacecraft to the Sun.
For more information on Parker Solar Probe, go to:
-end-
Dwayne Brown / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov
Geoffrey Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618 / 240-228-8103
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618 / 240-228-8103
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu
Last Updated: Aug. 15, 2018
Editor: Karen Northon
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