How NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Was Designed to Travel Closer to the Sun Than Any Previous Mission
In a fiery TED-Ed lesson animated by Igor Coric of Artrake Studio, narrator Addison Anderson explains how the NASA Parker Solar Probe has come closer to the sun than any previous mission.
Its mission? To touch the Sun— and, ideally, to avoid melting in the process. It achieved this goal in 2021, when the probe flew by Venus and skimmed through the corona, the Sun’s outermost atmosphere. Since then, it’s carved closer and closer paths, revealing extraordinary details about our star in the process.
This mission, while incredible, has not been without its daunting challenges. Since its original launch in 2021, NASA engineers have been refining Parker’s design.
Researchers at NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program have developed a novel ultra-reflective coating called Solar White that’s predicted to reflect 99.9% of the Sun’s energy. They plan to use Solar White to coat an outer curved umbrella-like shield. Then, a second conical shield made from a silvered reflective material would shunt away any remaining radiation that escapes through. With both novel shields, scientists believe they could surf a probe as close as 2 solar radii from the surface.
