NASA Waits With Bated Breath for Signal From Sun-Exploring Spacecraft

This week, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe attempted to get closer to the Sun than any other man-made object. But due to a planned communications blackout, the team behind the mission won’t know if the spacecraft’s daring search was successful for at least another day.

On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe was set to come in one Uncomfortably close distance At 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface, the spacecraft was supposed to be out of contact with mission control at this point. According to NASAThe probe will send a beacon on Friday to make sure it survived its record-breaking close encounter with the Sun.

“No man-made object has ever come this close to a star, so Parker will return data from truly uncharted territory,” said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “We’re excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it comes back around the Sun.”

If successful, Tuesday’s flyby will be the first of three encounters over the same distance. During its perihelion, the spacecraft will pass the Sun at 430,000 miles per hour, breaking its own record for the fastest trip by any man-made object. At that speed, the probe would be able to travel from Washington, DC to Philadelphia in one second. During its approach, the spacecraft must withstand piping hot temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius), while keeping its internal temperature much cooler than 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4 degrees Celsius). Parker does this with a several-inch-thick heat shield, which reflects much of the sun’s heat.

The Parker Solar Probe began observing our host star at an unprecedented—that is, close—distance in August 2018. Since its launch, the spacecraft has swung closer to the Sun with each orbit, preparing for its perihelion, or closest approach. The Parker Probe made 21 close approaches to the Sun, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. In November, the Parker Solar Probe ran it The seventh and final flyby of VenusUses the planet’s gravitational pull to put the spacecraft on a trajectory toward its nearest solar system.

As it speeds toward the Sun’s surface, the Parker Probe will gather valuable information about the star and how it affects the space environment around it. “This is an example of a bold NASA mission, doing something no one has done before to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” said Aric Posner, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe program scientist, in a statement. “We can’t wait to get those first status updates from the spacecraft and start receiving science data in the coming weeks.”