May 2 2008
From The Space Library
Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that NASA had selected APL to construct the Solar Probe, a spacecraft that would fly within 4.3 million miles (6.92 million kilometers) of the Sun. NASA had pledged to contribute US$13.8 million in 2008 for development of the spacecraft. NASA and APL expected that the total mission cost would reach US$750 million. APL intended to design a 9-foot-long (2.74-meter-long), 992-pound (449.96-kilogram) probe, which would use a 6-inch-thick (15.24-centimeter-thick) carbon-carbon foam shield to withstand temperatures near the Sun—temperatures reaching as high as 2,552°F (1,400°C). The Solar Probe’s instruments would measure the solar corona’s dust, magnetic field, and high-energy protons and electrons. Scientists hoped that these measurements would help explain why temperatures in the Sun’s outer atmosphere are higher than at its surface, and why solar wind accelerates as it moves away from the Sun. NASA intended to launch the Solar Probe in 2015 on a mission expected to last for seven years.
Frank D. Roylance, “APL To Build Craft That Will Touch the Sun,” Baltimore Sun, 3 May 2008; Brian Berger, “Ambitious NASA Probe To Fly Through Sun’s Fringe,” Space.com, http://www.space.com/5370-ambitious-nasaprobe-fly-sun-fringe.html (accessed 16 March 2011).
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