PSA: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Is Launching Saturday Morning; Here's How To Watch (pbs.org) 35
In the early hours of Saturday morning, NASA is scheduled to launch the Parker Solar Probe for a seven-year mission to study the sun and its atmosphere. The spacecraft will take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, traveling up to 430,000 miles per hour towards the star -- that will make it the fastest spacecraft ever. Assuming you're reading this story around the time it's published, you still have time to watch the launch via NASA's livestream. The launch window for the Parker Solar Probe opens at 3:33 a.m. ET Saturday, but the exact launch time is unknown.
The New York Times has published a story about Eugene N. Parker, the professor that the spacecraft was named after. It is the first time that NASA has named a mission for a living person. Here's an excerpt from the report: In a foundational paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Parker described how charged particles streamed continuously from the sun, like the flow of water spreading outward from a circular fountain. Almost no one believed him. [...] Four years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus, measured energetic particles streaming through interplanetary space -- exactly what Dr. Parker had predicted. Scientists now call that stream of particles the solar wind. UPDATE: After several delays, the Sun-chasing probe successfully launched on August 12th at 3:31AM.
The New York Times has published a story about Eugene N. Parker, the professor that the spacecraft was named after. It is the first time that NASA has named a mission for a living person. Here's an excerpt from the report: In a foundational paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Parker described how charged particles streamed continuously from the sun, like the flow of water spreading outward from a circular fountain. Almost no one believed him. [...] Four years later, Dr. Parker was vindicated when Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus, measured energetic particles streaming through interplanetary space -- exactly what Dr. Parker had predicted. Scientists now call that stream of particles the solar wind. UPDATE: After several delays, the Sun-chasing probe successfully launched on August 12th at 3:31AM.
7 years of data to look forward to. (Score:3)
Then there is the flip side of the equation: If we are indeed at the start of a Maunder minimum then DRILL BABY DRILL! Frac the shit out of all the shale until the water in our farmer's houses explode! We are going to need the oil companies for the same reason Hitler needed to turn south in the Ukraine. And a presence in North Africa with control of the Suez
All the bullshit I just spouted aside, if we are indeed at the start of a quiet period of solar activity then the benefit may indeed be a moderation of our climate and a return, however brief, to a semblance of the climate conditions and annual cycles we had only 30 years ago. Even if we dump a butt tonne more CO2 into the atmosphere by burning millions of tonnes of fossil fuels to compensate for killer winter cold especially in Northern Sates and Canada, a series of years as cold as the little ice age of the Baroque era will only be survived with the increased use of fossil fuels. The numbers freezing in the streets of Europe and North America will be astounding, during the little ice age it was common to find the poor and their children frozen to death outside or even inside the churches.
The data from this probe will help tell the tale, if there are any of us left to crunch it.
Re: (Score:3)
if we are indeed at the start of a quiet period of solar activity ...
The sun is in a "minimum" since about 15 years
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if we are indeed at the start of a quiet period of solar activity The sun is in a "minimum" since about 15 years ...
Thank you for pointing that out. I was and am playing devils advocate here as you should have already guessed. There is no evidence that a Maunder minimum caused the little ice ages of the late Renaissance and Baroque era. So I spouted out a pile of complete bullshit for this very reason. However we are in for one hell of a rough ride because of anthropogenic climate change and any study of the potential of solar radiation and the fact that predictable changes in activity from the sun might change things fo
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'destroys all life on the planet'? A bit of hyperbole, as life will survive global warming. It won't look like it does now, and we might not survive. But, oh well, life will go on, even if we don't.
Thank you, that was my point. However study of the mechanisms of the sun is a worthy goal even if Nasa is having some trouble getting it's rocks off again.
The planned velocity and spiral decent of the craft during the mission is a very interesting change from the norm and might yield unexpected results. How a high velocity downward spiral orbital trajectory of the sun will effect electronics and communications is one aspect of this mission that might become fascinating. We have never tried to communicated
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7 years of data to look forward to. ... The data from this probe will help tell the tale, if there are any of us left to crunch it.
Trump will be the 'last president'. [independent.co.uk] Michael Moore, is that you?
by deviated_prevert. Yep, it is.
Canceled (Score:2)
It's canceled until the same time tomorrow they said.
Wait 24 hours (Score:2)
Mission scrubbed for today. Oh, well.
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Would have been a nice way to start the day. Oh well. :P
Disaster Area (Score:1)
Why call it Parkes when it could now be called Disaster Area, after the plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, which was generally regarded as not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but also as being the loudest noise of any kind at all.
That name..... Parker... (Score:1)
(Yes I know it's for the scientist)
Naming it Parker suddenly makes me think of Spider-Man "PARKER!!! BRING ME MORE PHOTOS OF SPIDERMAN!!!" I guess he's really changing roles... now it's time for pictures of the sun!
This should be the theme song (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
yeah I'm old
The Sun is currently unavailable. (Score:1)
Please try your launch again tomorrow.
They had a problem with Helium. Unlike SpaceX which immediately provides details about what they know, what went wrong, and what they're going to do to fix it, ULA and NASA have elected to say only that they had a problem with helium.
Now, I'm not generally a fan of helium. I don't breath much of it, it makes balloon blowers sound weird, and this one time it yelled at me in a crowded theater, but this is hardly the transparent open communication I expect from a nationa
Night launch (Score:1)