Pfff. Forget Mars. NASA's next stop is the sun. NBD
In the most astounding act of scientific hubris since we started playing with black holes, the atom, and the human heart, NASA has just announced a mission that'll allow us to "finally touch the sun". I'm not sure if there's some dissention among the science humans at NASA, but this is the most "hold my beer" announcement in recent space travel history. Just sayin', someone in the Mars One program must have stepped on some toes. "How's your cute Mars program going, Dale? Start your solar slideshow, Ruth." *obnoxiously pops bubblegum*
If all goes as planned, by this time next summer (Mars is only slated for 2030), humankind will be scientifically poised to fly closer to the sun than it ever has before . Seven times closer if you want the specifics. It's the stuff of legends. Literally. This, if you remember your Greek classics, is how Daedalus lost Icarus. Side note: NASA did not call their space probe Icarus I. They went with The Parker Solar Probe. I'd have gone with Ymir. He was the first frost giant in Norse mythology. That's yours if you still want it, NASA. You're welcome. I'm helping.
To be fair, the name of the probe is apt (and honourable). Solar astrophysicist, Dr Eugene Parker, has been looking directly into the sun for 60 years (through very safe instruments) and calls it the "primary puzzle in the universe." Parker, now 90, calls this voyage heroic and he's not wrong. Even though the Parker Probe will not contain a human, for obvious reasons (or even touch the actual surface of the sun), some of the finer points of the historic exploration are mind melting. First off, the journey necessitates a spacecraft that can brave heat upwards of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and travel at no less than 430,000 miles per hour. What in the name of Neil deGrasse Tyson is this thing going to be made of!? Or fueled with!? I'm banking on solar power for the latter, like Superman (Kal-El might be a better name, also yours, NASA, if you like. I'll stop.)
What we do know comes in part from Nicola Fox, a mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. She's called the project the "coolest, hottest, fastest mission under the sun" and confirms that the probe will feature an unprecedented heat shield. Harsh and relentless tests of the shield are happening right now to ensure it can take the extreme speeds and temperature shifts that'll be par for the feverish course. I wish I had video of that test lab. That the probe will not actually touch the sun's surface is no less thrilling. The probe's trajectory will arc through the corona (the sun's aura of plasma, or atmosphere). Oddly enough, the corona is 300 times hotter than the sun's 10,000 degree F surface (that's 5,537 and change in Celsius). The incongruity between surface and corona temperature is something we don't fully understand. Yet. Fox says the sun mission will let us collect crucial data and hopefully better our ability to forecast tricky space weather systems like solar flares that travel at several million miles an hour. They really wreak havoc on our Earthling tech. In the late 80s, a particularly nasty surprise solar flare (a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME) wiped out power across several regions of Quebec. We've since gotten over it.
If you need more details, definitely check out The Parker Solar Probe countdown page which presents "Humanity's First Mission To Touch The Sun" with dramatic particulars, impressive visuals and a triumphant audio backtrack that champions the spatial works of humankind (and our indomitably curious human spirit). It's all pretty glorious (and a touch hilarious). It brings to mind the in-ride education video in Jurassic Park. I mean, we still don't have hover boards and a common cold can still knock us on our collective human @sses (and that's the least crummy of the crummy illnesses visited upon our fragile bodies) but let's touch the sun. Now is the time. Everything on earth is fine. It's fine.
Still, there are some searing science tidbits to take away from our solar system's star. It's 149.6 million km away, while Mars is only 54.6 million kilometres from Earth (got that, Dale?). The moon, on the other hand, is an adorable 384,400 klick jaunt from our planet's surface. You don't need science to tell you the sun is hot - if you've ever been outside during the day you know the it's on the warmish side. Anything that can scorch your skin with radiation from 8 light-minutes away is packing some spice. Of course, it also gives us little Vitamin D hit, dictates our weather, planetary temperature and benefits all plant life dependent on photosynthesis for growth. So, getting a closer look can only serve us. Alright, science I'm in. Huzzah, let's do it!
At the very least, this will trigger a good ol' fashioned space race and we'll get to spin conspiracy plots about fake "landings" for decades to come. Plus, it'll really light a fire under those slackers in the Mars One program.
Marc Beaulieu is a writer, producer and host of the live Q&A show guyQ LIVE @AskMen