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Mass
The mass of the spacecraft after fueling is about 1,400 pounds (635 kilograms). The heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System (TPS), weighs 160 pounds (73 kilograms).
Spacecraft Dimensions
The spacecraft is about 9.8 feet (3 meters) tall and about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in diameter below the cooling system. The Thermal Protection System is a little over 4.5 inches (11.43 centimeters) thick and has a diameter of about 7.5 feet (2.3 meters).
Power
Parker Solar Probe’s solar arrays can produce 388 watts of power, depending on configuration-about enough to run a kitchen blender.
Maximum Downlink Rate
The maximum downlink rate is 555 kilobits per second (kbps). The downlink time varies by orbit phase.
Antenna
The spacecraft has three types of antennas:
One High-Gain Antenna (HGA) for downlinking high-rate science data.
Two Fan-beam Antenna to support command uplink and real-time health and status telemetry downlink during nominal operations.
Two Low-Gain Antenna (LGA) to support command uplink and real-time health and status telemetry downlink during contingency operations.
Solar Arrays
The two solar arrays are each about 3.7 feet (1.12 meters) long by 2.26 feet (0.69 meters) wide, for a total area of 17.2 square feet (1.6 square meters).
The objectives
Trace the flow of energy that heats the solar corona and accelerates the solar wind.
Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic field at the sources of the solar wind.
Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.
The mission
Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launched on Aug. 12, 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.
To unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun.
In 2017, the mission was renamed for Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. In the 1950s, Parker proposed several concepts about how stars-including our Sun-give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is -contrary to what was expected by physics laws- hotter than the surface of the Sun itself. This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living individual.
launching
launching
Launch: August 12, 2018, at 3:38 a.m. EDT (7:31 UTC)
Max. Launch C3: 154 km2/s2
Launch Site: Space Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Vehicle: Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage
Mission Duration: Baseline seven-year science mission
The journey
Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. To get there, it takes an innovative route.
Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the Sun, coming as close as 3.83 million miles (and 6.16 million kilometers) to the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before.
(At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe will be hurtling around the Sun at approximately 430,000 miles per hour! That's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second.)
(Orbit period: 88 days)
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