NASA Planning Mission to the Sun

[DKT27]

We know it's hot up there but NASA wants to know a bit more about the Sun and its environs. And so sometime before 2018, the agency intends to send a spacecraft into the solar atmosphere.

This will mark the first time that a spacecraft from earth will actually visit a star.

The decision to chart a mission to the Sun also realizes a dream that astronomers almost realized a half century ago, when the National Academy of Science's "Simpson Committee" in 1958 recommended a probe to investigate. Several studies were subsequently carried out testing the feasibility of the project. But nothing came of them.

Since NASA has never sent any vehicle this close to Earth's Sun, the craft will have to be outfitted with a special shield designed to withstand radiation and temperatures exceeding 2550 degrees Fahrenheit. A spokesman for NASA said scientists will depend on simulations to guarantee that the probe can cope with that sort of intense heat.

Dick Fisher, who directs NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington, said that the planned experiments would help resolve two key questions of solar physics. One is to explain why the sun's outer atmosphere is so much hotter than the sun's visible surface. (In the 1940s researchers discovered the corona's million-degree temperature.) The other is to find out more about how the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system gets accelerated.

"We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers," according to Fisher.

Until now, observations of the Sun were recorded from flybys millions of miles away. But the Solar Probe Plus, as it's called, will get close enough so that scientists hope to learn more about the solar corona and the solar wind. In a recent report on a Sun probe, NASA scientists noted that while they may know more about the corona and solar wind than ever before, "the answers to these questions can be obtained only through in-situ measurements of the solar wind down in the corona."

View: Original Article

They could go at night when the Sun's a little cooler. :lmao:

[sanjoa]

Let's make popcorn at sun :rofl:

[HX1]

I would love to do it.. but I would make it fast.. one quick small vapor.. *POOF* ...

[Night Owl]

:pizza: :toast:

fl0ppy, you've been eating a lot lately. I hope you're not putting on weight. :unsure: :lol:

[myidisbb]

interesting. now whats more interesting is how the F!@#$ are they going to get thta spacecraft into space? no shuttles and no rockets in the usa. thank you dnc and nObamo

[robalm]

Thats crazy :D

[Marik]

Good!

Hopefully the SUN will melt them along with their stupidity

[Drolz]

bring them some barbeque sticks... theres alot of toasting might happen!!! human barbeque made in the sun...!!!

[LeetPirate]

What a stupid endeavour. First they throw away money on social welfare, now they want to burn it. Everyone knows the sun will just destroy the rocket ship in 2 seconds and all the bureaucrats will be like OMG we totally did not expect that outcome, now we have to spend millions on an official investigation to figure out why the rocket to the sun failed. 5 years and 10 million dollars later the official answer will be "the sun was too hot".

Wait I just remembered, they might outsource the rocket ship so it will be made in China therefore it will most likely fail as soon as it hits the ionosphere and the duct tape burns out only to reveal that the Chinese decided to cut back on cost by painting duct tape to look like spacecraft grade alloy. :rofl:

[Drolz]

Wait I just remembered, they might outsource the rocket ship so it will be made in China therefore it will most likely fail as soon as it hits the ionosphere and the duct tape burns out only to reveal that the Chinese decided to cut back on cost by painting duct tape to look like spacecraft grade alloy. :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Atasas]

Wait I just remembered, they might outsource the rocket ship so it will be made in China therefore it will most likely fail as soon as it hits the ionosphere and the duct tape burns out only to reveal that the Chinese decided to cut back on cost by painting duct tape to look like spacecraft grade alloy. :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'd love more info! :D

[jofre]

:w00t: Was that the 10.000.000 dollars Chinese Rocket ? - Bad luck !...maybe next time...more money for China , please ! :beta:

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Sorry for the disaster but it was raining, we used silicone but even so the water entered i... bad luck. Lets try again...I suppose you still have oil to pay the bill ?