NASA and the ESA are heating things up by sending satellites to the sun. With our Sun being over 10,000-degrees Fahrenheit at its photosphere or outer edges, and 25-million degrees Fahrenheit at its core, it is a truly daunting mission to consider.
With the collaborated efforts from both NASA and the ESA, there are now two satellites that are being worked, in order to handle this particular mission. Both organizations believe that they will be able to stand the amazing levels of heat and will also ideally get them some much needed answers about how our sun works and how it is heated.
The two satellites are ESA’s Solar Orbiter and NASA’s Solar Probe Plus. Each has its own characteristics that will hopefully prove to be enough to stand up to the Sun’s intense heat. ESA’s Solar Orbiter has a shield made from titanium that should help provide enough protection, while NASA’s Solar Probe Plus will be using a different carbon-composite for its protection.
The mission of each spacecraft will be different, but ESA and NASA agree that it is best to send them both out at the same time as that will allow for a more extensive investigation than if each one is done alone. The current plans entail that ESA’s Solar Orbiter will study the inner parts of the Sun, while NASA’s Solar Probe Plus will focus more on the outer rims, or the corona.
The objectives by sending both ships in at the same time are to understand more of what makes our sun work. This means being able to understand the heating process that it goes through in order to have such an enormous output of energy, as well as being able to better understand the solar winds and their patterns. This understanding can also be crucial in the future in order to help protect our Earth and to keep satellite communications from being interrupted during solar flares.
As far as how both spacecraft will get to the sun in the first place, both organizations are currently looking into different rockets that would be suitable for the job. NASA has chosen to work with a Delta-IV Heavy Rocket and ESA has not yet made the final decision of what rocket they will be using.
The actual scheduling of this particular set of missions is not entirely decided as of yet. Currently, both of the spacecraft involved are still under construction and many modifications are being performed along the way to ensure that each will be able to handle anything that is thrown at it, while being up close and personal with our solar system’s centerpiece. Having the ability to allow spacecraft to travel there and to see it firsthand could very well change our understanding of it forever.
