NASA Plans to Visit the Sun by 2018

NASA Plans to Visit the Sun

If you’ve seen Danny Boyle’s movie Sunshine, you may be a little disappointed: NASA’s mission to visit the Earth’s sun won’t include sending people up there.

But NASA will be sending a spacecraft into the Sun’s atmosphere, approximately four million miles from its surface. The project, called Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch sometime before 2018.

Four million miles doesn’t sound very close, but it’s still very exciting, since this is a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered. NASA plans for the project to “unlock the sun’s biggest mysteries.”

mashable.com...

Sounds exciting, but how do they expect to do such a mission after Obama cut NASA's manned space flight program?

Thank goodness we have at least 8 years until the proposed plan happens. Maybe they don't think Obama will have a second term?

very cool but i thought we were all dead in two years anyhow, so even Obama should be off the priority list. lol jk

I can't wait to see the picture we will surly take, the sun is truly beautiful

GummB

If you have seen Sunshine you would be GLAD we aren't sending people up there!

reply to post by Nventual


I really don't think we have to see the movie to understand... it's hot and we'd simply fry like an egg. No matter how many ice packs you filled your space suit with.

Liquid helium space suites anyone?

GummB


[edit on 4-9-2010 by GummB]

Sounds interesting and I don't know how they plan to do such a mission. What am I supposed to make of "a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered"? Has a spacecraft by another entity already encountered this region?

reply to post by NeutronAvenger


Sounds great for photo ops, but I'd rather see the Moon revisited with the intent of mining to change our dependance of fossil fuels here on Earth..

What are they going to get from the sun in the short term???

Money "not" well spent...

[edit on 4-9-2010 by CynicalM]

Very interesting and what I found stuck out the most in that article is....

Four million miles doesn’t sound very close, but it’s still very exciting, since this is a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered.

Created by us? (followed by me scratching my head)

Never the less interesting article OP.


[edit on 4-9-2010 by Solar.Absolution]

reply to post by Solar.Absolution

Originally posted by Three_moons
What am I supposed to make of "a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered"? Has a spacecraft by another entity already encountered this region?

I was perplexed by the same. You have any thoughts on this crazy talk? Technically it doesn't say we've never sent a spacecraft there but rather that we didn't create one. Maybe this is the beginning of disclosure They do exist and they gave us star grazing spacecraft.

Originally posted by Three_moons
reply to post by Solar.Absolution

 

Originally posted by Three_moons
What am I supposed to make of "a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered"? Has a spacecraft by another entity already encountered this region?

I was perplexed by the same.

You have any thoughts on this crazy talk?

Technically it doesn't say we've never sent a spacecraft there but rather that we didn't create one.

Maybe this is the beginning of disclosure

They do exist and they gave us star grazing spacecraft.

No, that wasn't part of the NASA statement - it was something that Stan Schroeder wrote in the Mashable web article. Ask him why he said it.

What do they expect a trip like this to reveal about the sun that is going to warrant the obvious huge cost? Wouldn't such an expense be more productive if it were used in some other manner? There's so much out there that we have yet to explore or discover. What benefit is it to travel closer to the damn sun? The sun is what it is and we are at it's mercy . . . .unless now the U.S. has now graduated from the school of weather manipulation to the point they think we should find a way to f--------- around with the sun so we can show the world, once again how very superior and powerful we are. (***rolling eyes****)

reply to post by NightGypsy


I kind of agree. The sun is so far away, and we have a lot of Planets in a reachable vicinity. I thought we could explore Mars a little more, and maybe Jupiter.

And I am guessing it is going to cost a lot. They would need a heck load of fuel to get it that way to start with, then create sun-like heat resisting material.


spelling.

[edit on 4-9-2010 by NeutronAvenger]

i am mostly interested in the moons of jupiter and saturn. when i was a younger kid i always just imagined our solar system as a barren and desolate place, but now we are realizing how many bodies are actually out there. even if we find no life in our solar system the possibilities of new resources and colonization are pretty good and also realistic. this is where we should focus our efforts along with the telescope programs in my opinion.

no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered.

Maybe he visits this site....I know there are threads about planet size spaceships orbiting the sun

reply to post by Three_moons


Perhaps by 'us' the article is reference to the north american space programs?... But who knows what the articles author was referring to...

[edit on 4-9-2010 by Solar.Absolution]

reply to post by Saint Exupery

Ah, you are correct! I should have known better to find the original source that's filled with almost all of the answers to questions that have been asked. I hope you caught the humorous aspect of my post.

The heat resistant carbon-composite spacecraft, which will use many of the same heat-resistant technologies from APL's MESSENGER spacecraft, will be solar powered and solve two great mysteries.

Mystery #1—the corona: Intuition says the temperature should drop as you back away; instead, it rises.
Mystery #2—the solar wind: The sun spews a hot, million mph wind of charged particles throughout the solar system. Curiously, there is no organized wind close to the sun's surface. Somewhere in between, some unknown agent gives the solar wind its great velocity.

Bonus: Although Venus is not a primary target of the mission, astronomers may learn new things about the planet when the heavily-instrumented probe swings by.

NASA

Interesting stuff.

Oh, and the (created by us), I think he's talking about us, as in NASA and not the space agency of another nation.

reply to post by Three_moons


Nice summary! My dad was a radio astronomer who was one of the first to measure the temperature of the solar corona. He'd be fascinated by this.