Parker Solar Probe … and it continues to accelerate on each pass:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe ... y-the-sun/

I wonder how hot this probe gets at the perihelion point (4.51 million miles from the surface of the Sun).

Dan

"At closest approach to the Sun, while the front of Parker Solar Probe' solar shield faces temperatures approaching 2,600° Fahrenheit, or 1,400° Celsius, the spacecraft's payload will be near room temperature, at about 85° F."

https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The ... /index.php

The heat shield protects the spacecraft. If they lose orientation, the spacecraft will be destroyed in seconds.

More about the thermal design of the probe:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-the-parke ... th-the-sun

Mike C.

Wow! They use plain old water, distilled, to cool the photocells, not some exotic chemical fluid. Who would have "thunk".

They need to make it go 1695 times faster.

"At closest approach to the Sun, while the front of Parker Solar Probe' solar shield faces temperatures approaching 2,600° Fahrenheit, or 1,400° Celsius, the spacecraft's payload will be near room temperature, at about 85° F."

https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The ... /index.php

The heat shield protects the spacecraft. If they lose orientation, the spacecraft will be destroyed in seconds.

More about the thermal design of the probe:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-the-parke ... th-the-sun

Mike C.

“Warp one. Engage!”

I was surprised at that as well. No mention of using ethylene glycol which would have at least been a better anti-freeze solution (even though there is sophisticated management of potential freezing situations with the DI water).

Dan

maybe the amount of reduction in freezing point is insignificant in the context of the potential temperatures involved ?

another thought, what happens to the big organic molecules forming the antifreeze, in that irradiated environment? I have no idea but I bet it warrants examination

Is it getting faster because with each pass it gets closer to the sun, or because of some kind of gravitational/tidal assist? I'm guessing that it gets closer because it's losing energy with each orbit?

I don't think that its speed is increasing. In fact, this source indicates that it used a series of fly-bys of Venus to adjust its flight path and decelerate. It did approach closer to the sun over the first 1200 days, but it has remained stable since.

https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The ... ere-Is-PSP

so is this thing faster than the nuclear blast manhole cover ? I thought that was (accidentally) the fastest thing ever created by human hands ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation ... l_bore_cap

"When Pascal-B was detonated, the blast went straight up the test shaft, launching the cap into the atmosphere at a speed of more than 66 km/s (41 mi/s; 240,000 km/h; 150,000 mph)."

So definitely beat that record! That speed also feels like a guesstimate based on a single frame of available high-speed camera data. Not to mention that also it probably vaporized soon after, a whole lot less impressive to maintain that speed for a couple of seconds vs. years.

The Parker probe has significantly less indicated airspeed and thus a lot less drag.

I doubt its KIAS is over 1 knot. But it isn't zero.

Mike C.