NASA prepares to embark on a groundbreaking mission of approaching and making contact with the Sun

Next year, on December 24th, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will achieve a monumental milestone in space exploration. It will reach a speed of 195 km/s (435,000 mph) as it zooms past the Sun, getting closer than any other human-made object has ever been. The probe will be just 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) from the Sun's surface, an impressive feat that project scientist Dr Nour Raouafi likens to "almost landing on a star." Dr. Raouafi compares this achievement to the historic Moon landing of 1969. The Parker Solar Probe's incredible speed is a result of the immense gravitational pull it experiences while falling towards the Sun. It's equivalent to flying from New York to London in less than 30 seconds. Launched in 2018, this audacious mission aims to make repeated close passes of the Sun, with the ultimate goal of reaching a distance as close as 4% of the Sun-Earth distance by late 2024. However, the challenges facing the Parker Solar Probe are immense. At its closest point to the Sun, the front of the spacecraft will reach temperatures of 1,400C. To overcome this, the probe's strategy is to make quick measurements of the solar environment using instruments deployed from behind a thick heat shield. Researchers hope that the reward for this mission will be valuable insights into solar processes, particularly the workings of the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere. Scientists are still unable to fully explain some of the phenomena observed in the corona, such as the counter-intuitive superheating and the rapid acceleration of charged particles into a supersonic wind. Acquiring more knowledge about these processes is crucial for improving predictions of solar behavior and mitigating the impact of "space weather" on Earth, which can disrupt communications and power grids. It also becomes critical as humans consider returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent lunar presence. Parker Solar Probe made one of its close approaches to the Sun, and it has three more planned for 2024. On November 6th, it will swing around Venus to align its orbit and make the historic flyby on December 24th. Dr. Nicky Fox, the head of science at NASA, emphasized the significance of the prolonged time the probe will spend in the corona during this pass, allowing scientists to study the solar wind and associated heating in greater detail. The coming year will be the pinnacle of Parker's mission, as it will no longer be able to get any closer to the Sun due to its trajectory and the risk of exposing the rear of the spacecraft to intolerable temperatures.