Solar Probe Will Enlighten Us

February 11, 2020 – The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket thundered into space Feb 9, beginning a multi-year mission for the on-board Solar Orbiter. NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on the mission that will send the spacecraft on a 65-million-mile trek that will result in some images of the sun that have never before been captured.

Artist rendition of Solar Orbiter probe studying the sun. (Photo: NASA)

Working in concert with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in August of 2018, the Solar Orbiter will eventually venture as close as 26 million miles from the sun. A flyby of Venus just after Christmas will help position the probe to reach orbit around the Sun, a process that will take about two years.  Once in position, the Solar Orbiter is designed to make its journey around our star 22 times in the next 10 years.

Part of the mission will glean information to help scientists better understand the energy coming off the Sun, and this information will be used to predict events in space and help protect astronauts and equipment from catastrophic energy releases like solar flares.

Other NASA science missions are planned this year. Perhaps as soon as July, NASA will launch the Mars 2020 rover, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The rover will seek to study the geology of the Martian surface nd continue the search for life on Mars.

That mission will also launch on an Atlas V rocket from Florida.

Source: Florida Today