Parker Solar Probe, Take the Solar Plunge Options

[ljk4-1]

Any serious plans to send a probe into the Sun to explore its depths as far as possible?

What would help a probe last as long as it could and how deep could it get?

Could it even radio or laser out any data?

What about a Sun skimmer?

[Paolo]

ESA's Solar Orbiter has recently been delayed from January to July 2017. On the other hand, I have not been able to find the sequence of flybys for the July 2017 launch. Ideas anyone?

[pitcapuozzo]

ESA's Solar Orbiter has recently been delayed from January to July 2017. On the other hand, I have not been able to find the sequence of flybys for the July 2017 launch. Ideas anyone?

It has just been delayed from Jul 2017 to Oct 2018. The decision to postpone the launch was taken in order to ensure that all of the spacecraft’s scientific goals will be achieved, with all the system’s components adequately tested prior to sending the spacecraft to the launch site.

According to this paper (it refers to a Sep 2018 launch window, however I think it will be the same for Oct 2018):

The transfer phase for this mission profile begins with a launch in September 2018, with an escape velocity from the Earth of 3.66 km/s and declination of the escape velocity of –41.5°. About 5 months after launch, a Venus GAM with a pericentre height of more than 11000 km places the spacecraft in a trajectory towards the Earth. An Earth GAM 10 months later puts the spacecraft into an orbit such that another Earth GAM occurs 22 months later. 2 months after the last Earth swing-by the spacecraft arrives at Venus with a hyperbolic velocity of 19.3 km/s. A sequence of resonances 1:1-1:1-4:3-3:2-3:2 is then performed at Venus during the science phase such that the solar inclination is gradually raised up to the final maximum value of 34°. The design of this sequence of resonances has been driven by the minimization of the maximum length of communications interruption due to safe mode during solar conjunctions. A first 4:3 resonance like in the January 2017 mission profile, while more attractive in terms of science, would exceed the limit of the current spacecraft design. The perihelion distance therefore rises slightly during the two 1:1 resonant orbits and drops below 0.3 AU for the 4:3 and the first 3:2 resonant orbits. The first perihelion within this distance occurs 4.6 years after launch. The maximum solar latitude is reached 7.6 years after launch. The characteristics of the September 2018 mission profile are summarized in Table 4.