Solar Probe+ to plunge directly into Sun's atmosphere

Pasadena - NASA has started to develop of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before. Called Solar Probe Plus, the craft is planned to launch no later than 2018.

The statement announcing details aboout this mission says the small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately 6.4 million kilometers (four million miles) from our star's surface. It will thus "explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered." NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the sun's biggest mysteries. Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington explains: "The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics - why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system?" "We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers." The spacecraft will have an up-close and personal view of the sun, enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers. As it approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield will have to withstand temperatures exceeding about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit) as well as intense radiation. "This project allows humanity's ingenuity to go where no spacecraft has ever gone before," according to Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe Plus program scientist at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "For the very first time, we'll be able to touch, taste and smell our sun." NASA invited researchers in 2009 to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists. The total dollar amount for the five selected investigations is approximately $180 million for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests. The selected proposals are: - Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation, principal investigator, Justin C. Kasper, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.: This investigation will specifically count the most abundant particles in the solar wind - electrons, protons and helium ions - and measure their properties. It is also designed to catch some of the particles in a special cup for direct analysis. - Wide-field Imager:, principal investigator, Russell Howard, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington: This telescope will make 3-D images of the sun's corona (atmosphere) . It will actually will see the solar wind and provide 3-D images of clouds and shocks as they approach and pass the spacecraft. . - Fields Experiment:, principal investigator, Stuart Bale, University of California Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.:It will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves that course through the sun's atmospheric plasma. The experiment also serves as a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft's antenna. - Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun:, principal investigator, David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio: It consists of two instruments that will take an inventory of elements in the sun's atmosphere using a mass spectrometer to weigh and sort ions in the vicinity of the spacecraft. - Heliospheric Origins with Solar Probe Plus:, principal investigator, Marco Velli of JPL.: As the mission's observatory scientist, responsible for serving as a senior scientist on the science working group, Velli will provide an independent assessment of scientific performance and act as a community advocate for the mission. * The Solar Probe Plus mission is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program. For more information visit http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/