Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018

 

The Parker Solar Probe launched on August 12, 2018, at 7:31 UTC (3:31 a.m. EDT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with an Upper Stage. It was the first NASA mission named after a living individual, honouring astrophysicist Eugene Newman Parker. Parker, who theorized the existence of the solar wind, was present at the launch. 

The Parker Solar Probe is designed to "touch" the Sun, by flying through its outer atmosphere, the corona, to gather data and unravel some long-standing mysteries of our star. To achieve this, the spacecraft utilizes a unique trajectory involving seven Venus gravity assists over roughly seven years to gradually push its orbit closer to the Sun. 

The mission has three main scientific objectives: to understand the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind, to determine the structure and dynamics of plasma and magnetic fields at the source of solar wind, and to investigate the mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles. 

To achieve these goals, the probe is equipped with four key instruments:

·        FIELDS measures electric and magnetic fields.

·        IS☉IS studies energetic particles.

·        WISPR provides images of the corona and inner heliosphere.

·        SWEAP analyzes the most common particles in the solar wind. 

A 4.5-inch thick carbon-composite heat shield protects the spacecraft and its instruments from the extreme heat and radiation during its close passes by the Sun.