NASA’s 2018 Mission to Touch the Sun

Since the beginning of the modern era, the interest in the sun has been increasingly scientific in nature. For decades now, many instruments on Earth and in space have been used to study the sun. They have discovered many things such as solar flares, sun spots and radiation levels to name a few. NASA’s Heliophysics laboratory will be keeping busy in the coming year with new projects to further understand the sun’s behavior and its effects on the solar system including Earth.

Solar Eclipse and Probe Mission:

On August 21st, there will be a total solar eclipse visible along a diagonal path across the United States. A partial eclipse will be seen by a greater area across the North American continent. NASA has several events planned and phone apps available for public engagement and data collection.

In the summer of 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will launch on a Delta IV heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and begin its seven year flight to the sun. It is said that the probe will “touch the sun” because it is tasked to fly through the star’s atmosphere, the corona – closer than any other vehicle. While flying through the extremely hot corona, the probe will be collecting valuable data to further understand how solar winds are formed.

The Interview:

ideaXme had the opportunity to interview Dr. Eric Christian, Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Heliophysics Laboratory to talk about the upcoming solar eclipse and Parker Solar Probe mission. Dr. Christian provides us interesting details on these two upcoming events including the data being collected and how it can help us better understand the sun’s behavior and its effects on Earth. It is believed that this data will help immensely in the forecasting of solar weather affecting our communications and energy infrastructures in the future.

Inspiration:

As a child, Dr. Christian’s academic strengths were always in the maths and the sciences. When he was 8-years-old, he witnessed the Apollo lunar landing missions and that is what initially inspired him to work at NASA. About ten years ago, he had the fortune of meeting and chatting a short while with his childhood hero, Neil Armstrong.

You can watch our Skype interview in its entirety following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9CQKfzcPnQ&feature=youtu.be

Credit: By Ana Guzman ideaXme Space Ambassador. Images provided by NASA.

Additional Links:

For additional information regarding these upcoming solar events, click on the links below:

Parker Solar Probe: https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe-humanity-s-first-visit-to-a-star

Solar Eclipse: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

NASA’s Heliophysics Division: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/heliophysics/

Dr. Eric Christian’s Bio: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/eric.r.christian

Follow on Twitter: Ana Guzman @mupwa and ideaXme @ideaxm

Ana comes to ideaXme with nine years experience working at NASA’s Johnson Space Center serving different roles in their communications and multimedia teams. As part of the ideaXme team, she wishes to continue working in outreach and educating the public in different topics regarding all things space.

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Credits: Ana Guzman interview video, text, and audio.

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