Scorchio! Parker Solar Probe to come closer to the Sun than any spacecraft in history

[SpookyFrank]

Gosh. Perhaps they should consider giving future probes going out to the planets a few extra heat shields so they can take a slingshot around the Sun first. At such speeds Mars could be what, 2-4 months away? Handy for re-supplying future colonists/ bases.

To get up to those speeds is going to require a couple of years of gravitational silly buggers though. To go straight from earth, round the sun and off to mars would require a prohibitively vast amount of energy.

 

[editor]

I'm by your sun breaking your records....

In April of 1976, the German-American Helios 2 probe made spaceflight's closest-ever solar approach, cruising within 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers) of the sun. But NASA's Parker Solar Probe zoomed inside that distance today (Oct. 29), crossing the threshold at about 1:04 p.m. EDT (1704 GMT), agency officials said.

Helios 2 also set the mark back then for fastest speed relative to the sun, at 153,454 mph (246,960 km/h). The Parker Solar Probe is expected to best that today as well, reaching higher speeds at about 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT on Oct. 30), NASA officials said. (NASA's Juno Jupiter spacecraft currently holds the record for top speed relative to Earth; the probe reached 165,000 mph, or 265,000 km/h, during its arrival at the giant planet in July 2016

A NASA Spacecraft Just Broke the Record for Closest Approach to Sun

 

[2hats]

Gosh. Perhaps they should consider giving future probes going out to the planets a few extra heat shields so they can take a slingshot around the Sun first. At such speeds Mars could be what, 2-4 months away? Handy for re-supplying future colonists/ bases.

What you gain on the roundabout you lose on the swing: Kepler’s Second Law…

Science.

But because things orbit faster the closer in

As an object approaches the Sun it trades gravitational potential energy for kinetic energy (so gains heliocentric velocity). As it climbs away from the Sun it trades that kinetic energy for gravitational potential energy (and so loses heliocentric velocity). You can’t slingshot around the Sun to the other planets in the solar system (you could slingshot relative to the galactic centre and/or perform an Oberth manoeuvre useful for interstellar travel).

 

[a_chap]

But Kepler was German. So, after Brexit, we no longer need to be bound by his laws.

 

[2hats]

But Kepler was German. So, after Brexit, we no longer need to be bound by his laws.

(Un)fortunately you can re-express Kepler’s Laws using Newton’s, conservation of energy, momentum. Besides, they’ll still apply from the 12 mile limit out.

 

[editor]

Utterly mind-blowing

During encounters 8 and 9, Parker Solar Probe flew through structures in the corona called streamers. This movie shows that data from the WISPR instrument on Parker Solar Probe.