NASA Parker Solar Probe’s position, speed and round-trip light time as of Jan. 28, 2019. Credit: NASA

“We’ve always said that we don’t know what to expect until we
look at the data,” said Project Scientist Nour Raouafi, also of APL. “The data
we have received hints at many new things that we’ve not seen before and at
potential new discoveries. Parker Solar Probe is delivering on the mission’s
promise of revealing the mysteries of our Sun.”


Meanwhile,
the science and engineering team is already preparing the spacecraft and
science instruments for the second close solar perihelion flyby just two months
away.


“In
preparation for that next encounter, the spacecraft’s solid state recorder is
being emptied of files that have already been delivered to Earth. In addition,
the spacecraft is receiving updated positional and navigation information
(called ephemeris) and is being loaded with a new automated command sequence,
which contains about one month’s worth of instructions.”

The right side of this image — from WISPR’s inner telescope — has a 40-degree field of view, with its right edge 58.5 degrees from the Sun’s center. The left side of the image is from WISPR’s outer telescope, which has a 58-degree field of view and extends to about 160 degrees from the Sun. There is a parallax of about 13 degrees in the apparent position of the Sun as viewed from Earth and from Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe

Parker is equipped with four on-board science
instruments suites. Because of the probes proximity to the sun it will take several
weeks before the science data begins
downlinking to scientists on Earth.


The key goals are to try and
answer fundamental questions about the nature of the sun and develop an
understanding of how the sun works – such as why is the solar corona so hot.
Its much hotter than the suns surface.


Scientists also want to know
why the solar wind is accelerated to supersonic speeds. 


The mission will conduct 7 Venus flyby’s to
set up 24 perihelion close encounters with the sun through 2024. The Venus
flyby’s will precisely
set its trajectory toward the Sun and slow the probe down instead of speeding
it up. 


The $1.5 Billion mission began with a dazzling
middle-of-the-night blastoff of the mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket in the wee
hours of the morning, Aug. 12 – and delivered the car sized spacecraft to its
intended trajectory towards Venus and the Sun.


The 23-story tall triple barreled United
Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket successfully launched at 3:31 a.m. EDT
Aug. 12 from the Florida Space Coast and put on a brilliant display of fire
power with 2.1 million pounds of thrust spewing forth from the trio of liquid
oxygen/liquid hydrogen RS-68A main engines that quickly turned night into day a
few hours before the natural sunrise under nearly cloud-free skies.

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun and dive into the corona, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, at 3:31 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. From camera at pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com