Solar Probe Plus – Delta IV H/Star-48BV – Canaveral SLC-37B – 12.08.2018 в 07:31 UTC

Автор che wi, 06.01.2014 22:46:44

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Andrey Samoilov

Тем временем финансирование другой миссии - Solar Probe Plus - под вопросом: http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/38604budget-heat-prompts-call-for-revising-nasa%E2%80%99s-heliophysics-roadmap
Meanwhile, NASA expects to find out this spring how much one of the biggest science missions on the agency's plate, Solar Probe Plus, will cost to build and launch. Preliminary estimates range fr om $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion and assume a July 2018 launch. The spacecraft's preliminary design review (PDR) is slated for January with a confirmation review to follow in March.
"Solar probe plus is the big swinger in our future plans," Chenette said. "This is the mission that will fly to less than 10 solar radii. Next year is important. Right now its in PDR season for instruments. There will be a spacecraft PDR in January. Shortly thereafter is Key Decision Point C wh ere we will establish cost, schedule and [the] plan for completing Solar Probe Plus. Getting that right is really important to the future of heliophysics. We have to make a plan to accomplish it within the budget [and then] carry out that plan."
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/van-kane/20131227-nasa-planetary-new-mission-woes.html

Для запуска аппарата разрабатывают "девайс":
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/12/10/atk_and_nasa_test_new_rocket.htm
ATK announced that it and NASA successfully tested a proof-of- concept Star 48GXV motor for the Solar Probe Plus mission, which will enter the sun's atmosphere to study the streams of charged particles the sun hurls into space.
According to a release, the Star 48GXV solid-fuel third stage will provide the boost needed to assist the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft in escaping Earth's orbit to begin its approach of the sun.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/12/9/atk_and_nasa_successfully_demonstrate_new.htm

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Solar Probe Plus Moves into Advanced Development

March 18, 2014



Technicians at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., prepare an engineering model of the Solar Probe Plus Thermal Protection System, or TPS, for vibration tests in October 2013. The main feature of the TPS is an 8-foot-diameter, 4.5-inch-thick, carbon-carbon, carbon foam shield that will sit atop the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft body. The system will protect Solar Probe Plus fr om temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and impacts from hypervelocity dust particles as it flies through the sun's outer atmosphere. The vibration tests simulate the shaking the spacecraft will undergo during launch; Solar Probe Plus is scheduled to launch in 2018.
Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory


Solar Probe Plus — NASA's ambitious mission to fly through and examine the sun's atmosphere — has reached a key stage of development.

Solar Probe Plus will begin advanced design, development and testing — a step NASA designates as Phase C — following a successful design review in which an independent assessment board deemed that the mission team, led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., was ready to move ahead with full-scale spacecraft fabrication, assembly, integration and testing.

"Solar Probe Plus will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it — almost 10 times closer to the sun than the planet Mercury — and this presents unprecedented technical challenges," says Andrew Driesman, Solar Probe Plus project manager at APL. "Whether it was devising ways for a spacecraft to survive so close to the sun, or to collect data in such an extreme environment, the concept of an operational solar probe had challenged engineers and scientists for decades, and now we're another step closer to making it happen."

Set to launch in 2018, Solar Probe Plus will orbit the sun 24 times, closing in with the help of seven Venus flybys. At its closest passes the probe will speed 118 miles per second through the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, coming about 3.8 million miles (about 6.2 million kilometers) from the surface to explore a region — and face hazards — no other spacecraft has encountered. Solar Probe Plus will carry 10 science instruments specifically designed to help solve two key puzzles of solar physics: why the sun's outer atmosphere is so much hotter than the sun's visible surface, and what accelerates the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system.

"The answers to these questions can be obtained only through in-situ measurements of the solar wind down in the corona," says APL's Nicky Fox, Solar Probe Plus project scientist. "Solar Probe Plus gets close enough to provide the missing links, with the right complement of instruments to make the measurements. For the first time, we will be able to go up and touch our star."

APL, which manages the mission and leads the spacecraft fabrication and integration effort, has made significant progress on several enabling technologies, such as the carbon-carbon composite heat shield that will protect Solar Probe Plus from temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and impacts from hypervelocity dust particles. Engineers have also built and tested a liquid-cooling system to keep the spacecraft's solar arrays at safe operating temperature throughout the voyage, and spacecraft parts are undergoing high-velocity dust tests that simulate flights through swarms of high-energy particles near the sun.

"Solar Probe Plus is a pathfinder for voyages to other stars and will explore one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the solar corona, wh ere space weather is born," says Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe Plus program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The Solar Probe Plus team includes engineers, scientists, technicians and other experts from government, academia and industry. The mission is part of NASA's Living With a Star program, designed to learn more about the sun and its effects on planetary systems and human activities. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

For more information, visit http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu .

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2014/140318.asp
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Andrey Samoilov

#2
Цитироватьhttp://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/41380solar-probe-plus-nasa's-'mission-to-the-fires-of-hell'-trading-atlas-5-for

GREENBELT, Md. — Solar Probe Plus, a flagship heliophysics mission NASA expects to cost some $1.5 billion to build and launch around July 2018, needs a bigger rocket than United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5, according to a senior official at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, where the solar observatory is being built. 
"The plan we had was to go on an Atlas 5, but the problem is that required us to develop a new, high-performance custom upper stage, and that represented a fairly significant risk for the project," Michael Ryschkewitsch, head of APL's Space Sector, said in a July 22 interview here. "Our team made the case to NASA headquarters that the overall risk to the mission would be lowered if we went to a heavy-class launch vehicle. The obvious players right now are Delta 4 Heavy and Falcon Heavy."
"The decision to allow the consideration of a Heavy-class vehicle for Solar Probe Plus was made by the Science Mission Directorate in the spring of 2014 based on input from the Project and advice from Launch Services," James Norman, NASA's director of launch services, said July 25 via email. He declined to comment on why NASA cleared the program to procure a bigger launch vehicle, saying "the specifics associated with the decision are procurement sensitive and competition sensitive data."
Trading up to a Delta 4 Heavy or Falcon Heavy means the money paid to ATK Missile Products of Beltsville, Maryland, for work on the customized kick-stage motor, known as STAR 48GXV, was a wasted effort for Solar Probe Plus. APL spokesman Michael Buckley said July 23 that ATK was paid $15.7 million for the work, which culminated with a December test firing of the solid-fueled STAR motor. 
The flight-proven Delta 4 Heavy is Denver-based ULA's most powerful launcher, typically used for the largest classified national security satellites. Falcon Heavy, which is still in development at SpaceX, features a first stage composed of three nine-engine Falcon 9 core stages.
Falcon Heavy's first launch is planned for 2015. SpaceX advertises the rocket as the most powerful launcher since the Saturn 5, able to lift 53 metric tons to low Earth orbit at one-third the cost of a Delta 4 Heavy.

Andrey Samoilov

Две небольшие новости про производство деталей и узлов для Solar Probe Plus.
Чуть позже переведу на русский язык.


1)  Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to supply its space inertial reference system for NASA's Solar Probe Plus program.
http://www.sys-con.com/node/3145302

2) NASA needed quick turn around, and Potomac was able to develop a process to mark the connectors less than a week after receiving the parts. With solid-state laser technology and state of the art precision motion control we were able to exceed requirements.
http://www.prleap.com/pr/227843/micro-marking-experts-at-potomac-work-with-nasa

Apollo13

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/03/ula-orbital-atk-team-up-spp-mission/

ЦитироватьNASA has selected the United Launch Alliance (ULA) to loft its Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission to study the Sun's outer atmosphere. The July, 2018 launch will utilize ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket, augmented by Orbital ATK's Star-48 solid motor as a third stage, in order to cope with the extremely high energy required for this flagship mission.

To achieve its goals, SPP will orbit the sun 24 times, closing to within 3.9 million miles of its surface with the help of seven Venus flybys.

At its closest passes the probe will speed 118 miles per second through the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, to explore a region – and face hazards – no other spacecraft has encountered.


ULA beat out other launch providers to win the right to launch the mission – citing a competitive procurement that considered multiple companies. NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), managing the campaign, announcing the total contract award amount for launch services is $389.1 million.

"The ULA team is very proud that NASA has selected the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle for this extraordinary science mission," noted Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.

Due to the high energy requirements for this mission, a third stage will top off the propulsive elements. This will be in the form of Orbital ATK's Star-48 solid rocket motor.

Ну вот. А George негодовал, что Дельта-4 Хэви не запустила ничего выдающегося :)

che wi

NASA Gives Green Light for Johns Hopkins APL to Begin Building Solar Probe Plus Spacecraft
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-gives-green-light-for-johns-hopkins-apl-to-begin-building-solar-probe-plus-spacecraft/

ЦитироватьNASA's Solar Probe Plus mission — which will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft has before — reached a major milestone last month when it successfully completed its Critical Design Review, or CDR.

An independent NASA review board met at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Maryland, March 16-20, 2015, to review all aspects of the mission plan. APL has designed and will build and operate the spacecraft for NASA. The CDR certifies that the Solar Probe Plus mission design is at an advanced stage and that fabrication, assembly, integration and testing of the many elements of the mission may proceed.

Solar Probe Plus is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket with an upper stage from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch window opens for 20 days starting on July 31, 2018. Over 24 orbits, the mission will use seven flybys of Venus to reduce its distance from the sun. The closest three will be just 3.8 million miles from the surface of the star.

Scientists have long wanted to send a probe through the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, to better understand the solar wind and the material it carries into our solar system. The primary science goals for the Solar Probe Plus mission are to trace the flow of energy and understand the heating of the solar corona and to explore the physical mechanisms that accelerate the solar wind and energetic particles.

To meet those objectives, Solar Probe Plus will carry four instrument suites into the corona and study the solar wind and energetic particles as they blast off the surface of the star. These instruments will study magnetic fields, plasma, and energetic particles, and will image the solar wind. The instruments are: the Fields Experiment from the University of California Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, California; the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio; the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Wide Field Imager for Solar Probe Plus from the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.

The spacecraft and instruments will be protected from the sun's heat by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield. During the closest passes around the sun, temperatures outside the spacecraft will reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Solar Probe Plus is part of NASA's Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected sun–Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.


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#7
Space Electronic Systems Prototype Development (SESPD)

Orbital ATK has been providing support to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) since the 1980s on this and several predecessor contracts. Through SESPD, Orbital ATK provides program management, engineering, and manufacturing services for NRL's Naval Center for Space Technology along with a team of specialty subcontractors. Activities include technical support for the design, development, fabrication, integration, test, launch, and operations of in-house spacecraft, instruments, and other technical systems for NRL. Work in Orbital ATK's Manufacturing and Integration Facility (MITF) in Beltsville, MD has provided quick reaction fabrication of circuit card assemblies, including Ceramic Column Grid Array (CCGA). Orbital ATK support has also included subcontract procurement and management of major flight hardware items.

Projects that have been supported include:

SoloHi – Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager
WISPR – Wide-Field Image for Solar PRobe Plus
MIS – Microwave Imager Sounder
RSGS – Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites
JMAPS – Joint Milli-Arcsecond Pathfinder Survey
SSULI – Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager
MiTEx Upper Stage – Micro-Satellite Technology Experiment
SECCHI – Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation

https://www.orbitalatk.com/space-systems/technical-services/SESPD/default.aspx
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#8
July 14, 2016

Solar Probe Plus Mission Moves into Advanced Development

NASA's first mission to "touch" the sun has passed a critical development milestone that keeps it well on track toward its scheduled summer 2018 launch.

Following a successful NASA management review on July 7, the Solar Probe Plus mission — which will send a spacecraft on several daring data-collecting runs through the sun's atmosphere — is moving into the system assembly, integration, test and launch stage of the project. NASA terms this period as Phase D, during which the mission team will finish building the spacecraft, install its science instruments, test it under simulated launch and space conditions, and launch it.

"Reaching this stage means a lot to the team and our stakeholders," said Andy Driesman, Solar Probe Plus project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which manages the mission for NASA and is building the spacecraft. "It shows we've designed a spacecraft, instruments and a mission that can address the engineering challenges associated with the harsh solar environment, and send back the data that scientists have sought for decades. It's humbling to see designs and ideas start to become a spacecraft."

Engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, prepare the developing Solar Probe Plus spacecraft for thermal vacuum tests that simulate conditions in space. Today the spacecraft includes the primary structure and its propulsion system; still to be installed over the next several months are critical systems such as power, communications and thermal protection, as well as science instruments. The probe is scheduled for launch in summer 2018. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL.

Solar Probe Plus is set to launch during a 20-day window that opens July 31, 2018. Over 24 orbits, the spacecraft will use seven flybys of Venus to reduce its distance fr om the sun. The closest three orbits will be within 3.9 million miles of the sun's surface — roughly seven times closer than any spacecraft has come to our star — wh ere it will face solar intensity more than 500 times what spacecraft experience while orbiting Earth.

This mission of extreme exploration will provide new data on solar activity and contribute significantly to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth. The primary science goals for Solar Probe Plus are to trace the flow of energy from and understand the heating of the sun's outer atmosphere — its corona — and to explore the physical mechanisms that accelerate the solar wind, the continuous stream of charged and energetic particles flowing out from the sun. To do that requires sending a probe through the corona to better understand the solar wind and the material it carries into our solar system. It's been a goal of scientists for nearly 60 years, one that is only possible today through cutting-edge thermal engineering advances.

Solar Probe Plus will carry four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and image the solar wind. The spacecraft and instruments will be protected from the sun's heat by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield, which will need to withstand temperatures that reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit — but keep the spacecraft's payload operating at room temperature.

Solar Probe Plus is part of NASA's Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. APL, in Laurel, Maryland, manages the mission for NASA and is designing and building and will operate the spacecraft.

http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2016/160714.asp
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Солнечный зонд обретает форму

Весной прошлого года я рассказывал про миссию Solar Probe Plus (SPP). Это спутник для изучения солнечной короны. Он должен войти в историю как аппарат, который приблизится к нашему светилу на рекордно малое расстояние. И пока что у миссии все идет хорошо.

Недавно SPP прошел важный этап. Инженеры из университета имени Джона Хопкинса в Мериленде завершили монтаж корпуса и двигателей аппарата и сейчас приступают к фазе D: установке научных инструментов, теплозащиты, систем связи и проведению предполетных испытаний.

Окно для запуска SPP откроется 31 июля 2018 года. Чтобы вплотную подобраться к Солнцу, аппарат будет использовать гравитацию Венеры. В период с 2018 по 2024 год зонд семь раз пройдет рядом с планетой. С каждым пролетом перигелий его орбиты будет уменьшаться. Во время последних трех орбит в 2024 году SPP будет приближаться к Солнцу на минимальное расстояние 5.9 миллионов километров, проходя через внешние слои его короны. Чтобы миссия удалась, теплозащитному экрану аппарата придется как следует потрудиться. При минимальном сближении теплозащитный щит аппарата будет раскаляться до температуры в 1500 градусов.

http://kiri2ll.livejournal.com/497289.html
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http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Videos.php

Integration and Test activities continue with Radio Frequency (RF) testing and the installation of the inertial measurement unit (IMU) which is used for maneuvering the spacecraft as a component of the guidance and control subsystem.

Harness work for the wires and connectors continues as well as the installation of the Remote Interface Unit (RIU) which provides system temperatures and voltage to the on-board computer.

Solar Probe Plus this week focused on the installation of the star trackers and closing up the spacecraft for alignment measurements.

И др.
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#11
At International Meeting, Mission Team Previews the Science of Solar Probe Plus
Posted on 01/05/2017 13:41:46 | Views: 286

The science of Solar Probe Plus – NASA's first mission to "touch" the sun – was on stage last month at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

With some 25,000 attendees, representing nearly 100 countries, AGU's Fall Meeting is the world's largest Earth and space science conference. Solar Probe Plus team members took full advantage of the large audience with presentations and posters on mission science, as well as a multimedia "flash talk" from Project Scientist Nicky Fox at the NASA exhibit.

 

"Not only was this meeting a chance for us to excite people about the launch – which is now less than two years away – but it was also a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues and have serious conversations about how what we learn from Solar Probe Plus will revolutionize our understanding of the sun," said Fox, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Set to launch in July 2018, Solar Probe Plus 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. The spacecraft will actually plunge several times through the sun's atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions – and ultimately providing humanity with the first ever close-up view of a star.

Check the links below for information on some of the Solar Probe Plus sessions, posters and presentations delivered at the AGU Fall Meeting. Each page offers links to abstracts or summaries of the information scientists presented or discussed.

Session: Preparing for Solar Probe Plus and Solar Orbiter: A Coordinated Science from the Corona to the Inner Heliosphere II

Session: Preparing for Solar Probe Plus and Solar Orbiter: A Coordinated Science from the Corona to the Inner Heliosphere III

Posters: Preparing for Solar Probe Plus and Solar Orbiter: A Coordinated Science from the Corona to the Inner Heliosphere

Solar Probe Plus is part of NASA's Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. APL manages the mission for NASA and is designing and building and will operate the spacecraft. Learn more at http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu

http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=21
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Decked Out: Solar Array Cooling System Coming Together on Solar Probe Plus

Posted on 04/19/2017 13:58:23

The Solar Array Cooling System on Solar Probe Plus has one critical job – to protect the NASA spacecraft's solar arrays from incineration as it moves through the blazing atmosphere of the sun.

Several key elements of that system are now on board the spacecraft, installed last week during ongoing integration and test operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. On April 5, engineers carefully attached the deck that holds the solar array cooling system components, solar array cooling system radiators and the truss structure assembly, or TSA. The TSA will support the spacecraft's signature 8-foot-wide, 4.5-inch-thick carbon-carbon foam heat shield, as well components from the FIELDS experiment and Solar Wind Electrons, Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) suite that will make direct measurements of the charged particles and electrical fields in the solar environment.

 

Mission integration and test team members secure the deck holding the structure assembly and several other critical thermal-protection components atop NASA's Solar Probe Plus spacecraft body on April 5, 2017, in the cleanroom at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

 

From left, Cheryl Starkey, Justin Hahn, Felipe Ruiz, Randy Persaud and Jim Beatty (obstructed by spacecraft) position the deck holding the structure assembly and several other critical thermal-protection components atop NASA's Solar Probe Plus spacecraft body on April 5, 2017, in the cleanroom at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Solar Probe Plus is on track for launch during a 20-day window that opens July 31, 2018. Integration and testing will continue at APL through November; after that, the spacecraft will be moved to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for four months of final space-environmental testing, it is then shipped to Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in March 2018 for final launch preparations. APL designed, is building, and will operate Solar Probe Plus for NASA.

http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=24
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Tuning Up: Solar Probe Plus Gets its First Science Instrument
Posted on 05/17/2017 07:32

With a few electrical connections and several turns of a wrench, Solar Probe Plus had its first onboard scientific instrument. The EPI-Lo particle detector – half of the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun instrument suite – was installed on the spacecraft on April 17 at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

"With EPI-Lo on board – our first scientific instrument – we can begin to call Solar Probe Plus an 'observatory,'" said Andrew Driesman, Solar Probe Plus project manager from APL. "We are looking forward to the integration of the other instruments on the spacecraft, subsequent testing, on-orbit science operations and ultimately new discoveries."

Designed and built by the APL – which also designed and is building the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft – EPI-Lo will measure low-energy particles streaming from the sun. Combining EPI-Lo data with the high-energy particle measurements of its EPI-Hi component, the entire suite will explore the mechanisms that produce, accelerate and transport energetic particles in the inner heliosphere – which stretches from the Sun's corona to the orbit of Mercury.

Фото:

http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/admin/Press-Releases/images/articles/epi-lo_benchchecks_4949sm.jpg
http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/admin/Press-Releases/images/articles/spp-epi_lo_integration_sm.jpg

"Measuring the energetic particles near the sun, and flying an entire suite of instruments on such a Solar Probe is an exciting event in science almost 60 years in the making," said Ralph McNutt, the EPI-Lo lead from APL. "This type of instrument has also been decades in the making at APL, and is the next extension for such time-of-flight plus energy instruments, which orbited Mercury on MESSENGER, flew by Pluto on New Horizons, and are currently circling the Earth on the Van Allen Probes and Jupiter on the Juno mission. All of these instruments came from the leadership of Don Mitchell in instrument concepts and design and through the teamwork of a gifted set of scientists, engineers, programmers and managers at APL."

David McComas of Princeton University is the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS¤IS) principal investigator, and the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, manages the IS¤IS suite. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is providing the EPI-Hi instrument, scheduled for integration later this week.

Solar Probe Plus will carry three other scientific instruments and suites: a solar wind plasma suite, the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) investigation; an electric and magnetic field suite known as FIELDS; and a wide-field imager called WISPR. This state-of-the-art payload – riding aboard a probe that will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it – will address the mission's overarching science goal: to determine the structure and dynamics of the sun's coronal magnetic field, understand how the solar corona and wind are heated and accelerated, and determine what mechanisms accelerate and transport energetic particles.

Solar Probe Plus is scheduled to launch during a 20-day window that opens July 31, 2018.

http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=25
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zandr

https://ria.ru/science/20170526/1495205517.html
ЦитироватьНАСА в 2018 году отправит в космос зонд, который изучит Солнце

© Инфографика . Алина Полянина
ВАШИНГТОН, 26 мая – РИА Новости. НАСА планирует летом 2018 года запустить космический исследовательский зонд, которому предстоит приблизиться к Солнцу на рекордно близкое расстояние, сообщило ведомство в пятницу.
"Запуск миссии Solar Probe Plus (SPP) запланирован на лето 2018", — сообщает НАСА. Предварительно сообщается, что старт зонда запланирован на период между 31 июля и 19 августа на ракете-носителе Delta IV–Heavy.
Аппарат достигнет расстояния 3,9 миллиона миль (6,2 миллиона километров) над поверхностью Солнца, приблизившись к звезде ближе, чем Меркурий. По утверждению НАСА, аппарат первым "потрогает" Солнце, поскольку будет в семь раз ближе к нему, чем другой когда-либо отправлявшийся к этой звезде человеком зонд.
В ведомстве сообщают, что SPP "будет исследовать внешнюю атмосферу звезды и вести крайне важные наблюдения, которые ответят на существующие десятилетиями вопросы о ее физических характеристиках".
В НАСА рассчитывают, что результаты исследований "улучшат прогнозы о том, как крупные явления в космической погоде влияют на Землю, спутники и (работу) астронавтов в космосе". Основная миссия зонда рассчитана на 11 дней, ее подробности будут обнародованы на следующей неделе.

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