Parker will break its record as the fastest spacecraft in history this Christmas Eve, while ‘touching’ the Sun

Space exploration, still in its first steps, is fertile ground for breaking records and setting marks for the first time. But few cases come close to that of the space probe Parker’s POTthe fastest spacecraft built by man and the one that has come closest to the Sun, records that will be broken again on December 24.

Named after the astrophysicist Eugene Parkerwho first theorized about the solar wind in the 50s, and launched in 2018the NASA probe aims study and monitor the solar corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphereits magnetic fields and particle emissions, and thereby advance research on the solar wind generated by the latter.

To this end, the mission contemplates 7 flybys of Venuswhich also makes it the ship that has visited the planet the most times, and that provides it with the gravity assistance necessary to adjust its trajectory and gradually reduce its perihelionthe closest point in an orbit around the Sun, in order to get closer and closer. The seventh and final scheduled Venus flyby took place last November 2.

In this way, Parker has been surpassing its records every time it has approached the Sun. The last time was in September 2023, when it reached the 635,000 kilometers per hour and went to 7.27 million kilometers away from the sun. Next day the 24th, it will 692,000 km/h0.064% of the speed of light, since 6.2 million kilometers from the solar surface, the closest a human creation has been to the Sun. On Earth, this speed would allow travel from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute.

Recreation of the Parker probe.POT.

To withstand the intense heat and radiation near the Sun, Parker is protected with a heat shield. This has a thickness of 11.4 centimeters and is made of a reinforced carbon-carbon composite, designed to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of about 1,377 °C.

Scientific instruments are also strengthened. One of them, the Faraday cupwhich measures the ion and electron fluxes of the solar wind, is made of titanium-zirconium-molybdenum, with a melting point of approximately 2,349 °Cand the electronic wiring uses sapphire crystal tubes and cables made of niobium to prevent melting.

So far, it has worked for him, and Parker’s instruments, which weigh less than a ton and have a scientific payload of only 50kgcontinue operating. The probe has its mission scheduled until the end of 2025, the year in which it will reach 4 new perihelions, the last being on December 7. Although he will no longer fly over Venus to recover gravitational assistance, NASA hopes that Parker will set new records by reaching the 700,000 kilometers per hour. Once the mission ends, NASA will decide whether to extend it depending on the status of the probe and its instruments.