NASA’s Parker Solar Probe accomplished a milestone on June 27, 2023 – its 16th orbit of the Sun. This included a close approach to the Sun (known as perihelion) on June 22, 2023, where the spacecraft came within 5.3 million miles of the solar surface while moving at 364,610 miles per hour. The spacecraft emerged from the solar flyby healthy and operating normally.
On Aug. 21, 2023, Parker Solar Probe will swing past Venus for its sixth flyby of the planet. To prepare for a smooth course, the mission team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) applied a small trajectory correction maneuver on June 7, 2023, the first course correction since March 2022. This flyby will be the sixth of seven planned flybys of Venus during Parker’s primary mission. Parker uses Venus’ gravity to tighten its orbit around the Sun and set up a future perihelion at just 4.5 million miles from the Sun’s surface. As the Sun becomes increasingly active, this perihelion will be especially important to learning more about heliophysics.
I wonder how hot it is at 5.3-4.5m miles and if the probe has to worry about heat at that distance?
It does. It has a special shield that that protects the equipment, leaving only a few instruments exposed. The solar panels are movable, they flip back to hide behind the shield on close approach and extend when away from the Sun, it even uses a water cooling system to transfer heat away from more sensitive areas. This page on NASA’s website shows how it works, including an animation of the solar panels retracting (pay no mind to the silly music in the video).
