The Parker spacecraft takes off towards the Sun at dawn this Saturday

Getting to the star is not easy: the launch requires 55 times more energy than a trip to Mars. And the journey counts with a little help from the gravity of Venus.

I decided to recover my prank with the little things because Parker will take off at 4:33 am this Saturday (11), Brasília time, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The definitive announcement was made by the US space agency on Thursday (9), after a slight delay over the original launch forecast, which was July 31. Anyone who wants to wake up early (or sleep late, depends on the prospect) can follow the live launch on the internet.

Although the probe itself is the size of a 1.0 car, the rocket used to carry it will be the Delta IV Heavy, with 72 meters high and 600 tons of fuel in the tank. Of the launch vehicles currently in operation, he is the second most powerful - only loses in ability to Elon Musk's unbelievable Falcon Heavy, who made history earlier this year.

The destination is not the most distant: the Sun, which is on average 148 million kilometers from Earth. This distance varies slightly throughout the year because our planet does not travel a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse - that is, an oval trajectory - around the star.

Parker will begin his trip by taking a ride on Venus. This small stop before the final destination will allow the spacecraft to lose speed and enter a path that will allow it to pass 3.9 million kilometers from the surface of the Sun (7 times closer than the current record). It's a huge distance on the human scale, but on the cosmic scale, it's a fine scare - those of motoboy in rear view.

Therefore, Parker will protect its scientific instruments with an 11.5 centimeter shield, which will reach 1371 ° C, but will be able to maintain a temperature close to 29 ° C inside the fuselage. Fifa standard thermal insulation. The ship must be positioned in such a way that the shield always stands between it and the star - if any other part is exposed to intense light, there is not much left to tell the story.


The temperature of the particles that make up the crown - the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere, which will be traversed by Parker - borders ridiculous 3000000ºC. Why, then, does the shield reach "only" 1400 ° C? Simple: the temperature is only a measure of agitation of the particles. But for these particles to transfer heat to the things they come into contact with, they need to come to the mountains. The density of the crown is extremely low, that is: although warm, the region is "diluted" enough to not be a problem.