Pack your shades, Major Tom, NASA is sending you to the Sun!

Daring mission will touch the Sun for the first time.

Pack your shades, Major Tom, NASA is sending you to the Sun. Don't forget the sunscreen. In an announcement today, NASA has reported they are sending the first mission to touch the Sun, and they mean it literally, not figuratively. 

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- NASA has announced it is sending a craft to the Sun. Fortunately for Major Tom, he can stay on the beach, as this probe will be unmanned.

Dubbed the "Parker Solar Probe," the mission is unique for several reasons. The mission is named for astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who first proposed the existence of the solar wind and the pattern the wind would make across the Solar System. Later observations confirmed he was correct. Parker is still alive, which breaks from NASA convention to name mission after people who are deceased. To receive such an honor while still alive is a profound gesture. A chip containing his picture and a digital copy of his paper will be included on the spacecraft. Parker has also been invited to come up with an inscription for a plaque that will ride on the spacecraft. If future spacefarers recover the craft, they will find and appreciate these remarkable artifacts.

The mission will pass though the Sun's corona, which is the equivalent of the atmosphere on Earth. The corona is hotter than the surface of the Sun, which is a mystery scientists hope to solve. Presently, they theorize the corona is heated by physical forces interacting in the Sun's atmosphere. The mission will test this hypothesis.

The probe will pass just 3.9 million miles above the surface of the Sun, which is incredibly close. It will be bombarded with solar particles and the most intense radiation ever suffered by any spacecraft. It will also face incredible heat, in excess of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. According to NASA, it will streak by at 430,000 miles per hour, "enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington D.C, in one second."

The craft will be protected by a 4.5-inch carbon heat shield. The shield should protect the craft's vital equipment, keeping it at room temperature while passing by the sun.

Understanding the sun is critical to forecasting weather both on land and in space. It is also the only star we can study in detail. Understanding the sun will help us to understand the universe. Finally, our astronauts and spacecraft must live and thrive in space, which is dominated by our sun and the space weather it creates. This mission will help improve safety for both astronauts and spacecraft as we reach for the stars in the centuries to come.

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