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Micromush
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
I wonder what kind of life they will find. 
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clh201
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Cool! Thanks for posting, but I have a small correction - "venturing
eight times farther than any previous spacecraft" is not quite
correct - the probe will be 8 times closer to the sun than any craft
has been so far.
The Voyager probes are the farthest-traveled man made spacecraft
so far, with Voyager 1 almost 6.5 billion miles from the sun.
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collinlv
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Sounds like NASA
we have taken absolutely the worst economic time of most of our lifetimes, with global economies tanking, to choose to spend 1 billion bucks (probably closer to 50 billion) to see how hot the sun is. Sounds like NASA to me.
for 1 million, I will give them a guess.
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clh201
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
$1B is nothing compared to the trillions we're spending on
foreign wars and handouts to the rich.
$1B in science goes a REALLY long way. For one thing, the
immediate impact is that it creates HIGHLY SKILLED, high wage
jobs, in addition to even more moderately skilled and unskilled
jobs needed to support the infrastructure of such a project.
The real payoff is long-term: scientific discoveries, pushing the
limits of human knowledge, in my opinion are worthy of our time,
resources and effort in and of themselves, but even if you don't
believe that, new discoreries about how the world works nearly
always (if not always) create new economic opportunities and
many times create completely new areas of the economy that
can be exploited by savvy entrepreneurs. The internet was
created by physicists to share data amongst themselves on
subatomic particles and stuff - who would have thought back
then, it would eventually come to dominate our economy and
culture.
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fred.wagner@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
As with all NASA projects, in working out the details of a spacecraft that can survive in that hot an environment, researchers will come up with lots of technologies that can be used in non-exotic areas that will directly benefit the rest of us. As with all basic research, you can't predict what you will discover - you just have to be alert to possibilities as you explore new challenges.
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Knowles2
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
collinlv
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Do not do it then, but do not blame NASA then when a unexpected
Solar storm comes around knocking out satelites an power grid, all
because we did not have the knowledge to predict a solar storm of
that magnitude to the degree require to order the shut down of such
systems.
An if a storm do hit an it is not spotted in time the damage it could
cause to the economy, well you can forget guestimates in the 10s of
billions or even hundreds of billions, it would be in the trillions dollars
of damage well wide, probably last years if not decades for some
countries. All because some small minded people wanted to cancel a
1 billion dollar probe.
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SmartAndWorldly
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Good for us all
@collinlv: No payoff for you, loser. We already have lots of
guesses, and most of them are free. That is not the point.
Good data comes at a price. That should not be surprising, since
knowledge has value. The technology you used to read this
article and then respond to it was all made possible by research
and development. None of it was free, and it has brought
immense value to our world.
At the very least, where do you think that $1 billion will be spent?
It will flow into our economy, creating jobs, providing paychecks
for families.
So, save your grumbling over things you cannot grasp and make
an effort to provide some positive contribution to the world.
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Nagesh Tummala
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
So, it is to find out about about solar storms - sounds like what happened in 2012 movie. So NASA is taking the Aztecs seriously and doing something about it. BTW, do you know where is can buy a ticket to that Chinese ship being built?
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PercySludge
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Directly into the Sun?? OMG!!
I just hope they schedule this to land there at night!
'Cause if they do it during the day, it's gonna get burned up! That Sun is REAL HOT!
http://www.sludge.tk has heard of this happening before!
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Tom Clabaugh
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
My guess is that it will find global warming.
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zackers
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Most of the money will go to spacecraft construction and launch
At $1 billion, most of the money will go towards building the spacecraft, it's launch, and controlling it from earth. Relatively little will be spent on new technology R&D.
Why can't this be done in conjunction with ESA or other multi-national space agencies? This research will be valuable for everybody, why should the US go it alone?
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kellycarter
09/09/10 | Report as spam
"directly into the sun"?
I agree it's going to get really close. But if you said an asteroid was
going to fly "directly into the Earth," I would assume it would smash
into the surface, not skim through the outer atmosphere. Still, that
would be way too close.
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rjangelino@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Possibly we could think a little harder on the cooling of this craft
by utilizing the sun itself to create the energy to run the cooling system. Remember we will be much closer to the heat and solar effects than here on earth. This in itself should accumulate much
data on the efficiency of solar panels which would pay for the trip many times over year after year of use here on earth.
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bryancox24@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
I could see technology from a mission like this finding its way to
energy saving products for the home, etc.
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kevinrs1
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
2012... the prospective launch date is 2018, so obviously not.
using solar energy to cool? solar panels...most stuff melts before 2600 degrees. Any cooling system has to dump the heat somewhere. For the most part, the design will probably be built of materials that will withstand the heat, there would probably be some cooling needed somewhere, but the options are an external heat sink which will be at least 2600 degrees, or using a liquid or solid that would be boiled off to cool, but that would contaminate the tests.
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p_rikka@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
@clh: Good point. I, for one, was completely against the bailout of the a-holes in Wall Street that created this mess in the first place. NASA sure isn't spending nearly as much as the government is to keep our troops in Iraq for the "war on terror" aka "effort to exert U.S. influence over where the oil in Iraq will go."
I'd rather spend my tax dollars on a space probe going toward the sun than to wipe the bungholes of the people who decided that a war in a foreign land was better than renewable energy reform. Perhaps we could also spend $1 billion on community centers that feature a weekly jello wrestling show? At least it would be entertaining!
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RobertMoore12@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Theey're going to destroy a billion dollar spacecraft to see how hot the sun is, that is increible. BUT it is typical ffor NASA. So far they have a 50% failure rate.
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ddferrari
09/09/10 | Report as spam
@ "SmartAndWorldly"
Your username is hilariously ironic, as those who actually are smart and worldly need not resort to name calling and condescension simply because they disagree. Perhaps you should switch to "AngryandJudgmental".
collinlv's point does have some merit... how many hungry mouths could be fed with NASA's budget, no matter where the funds come from? Do any of you really think that flying to the sun should be a priority right now? Would it kill us to put some of these expensive missions on hold for a few years, until we're back on our feet?
This is akin to a starving family going out and buying a Mercedes... let's handle the basics first, then move on to luxuries.
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Patrick Aupperle
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
@ dderrari
The US government is spending way more than enough money
on feeding hungry mouths. The taxpayers now support
themselves, their family, and a few people they don't know. These
people they don't know get supported because they have made a
conscious choice not support themselves and take everything
everybody else works for. Hmmm... Paying people not to work or
doing basic science to stay relevant in the world? That is a really
tough question.
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FiOS-Dave
09/09/10 | Report as spam
Protection
Just make sure that the astronauts aboard are all using SPF100,000...
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wizoddg
09/09/10 | Report as spam
...venturing eight times farther than any previous spacecraft.
Just how do you figure that?
Last time I looked, the Sun is under 100 million miles away at all times, and yet "...Voyager 1, at 8.7 billion miles from the Sun, has at last entered the heliosheath." in 2005.
under the OLD math, that's over 87 times further trip.
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pgit
09/09/10 | Report as spam
omg!
They're not going have a person on there, are they?
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velella1@...
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Are they going to go at night?
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Josephus Hap
09/09/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Give Bolden a chance to take that trip. We know that one human is worth ten thousand robots.
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muru_apr@...
09/10/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
This is really a high tech mission. I am sure it will unravel the mysteries around the outer region of sun. I can't wait for 8 more years
1 billion dollar for 8 year mission is a small amount considering the task is not a trifle task. It will get us to have a better understanding of our source "The Sun" and the solar system in general.
Muruganantham Raju
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Chiatzu
09/10/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
Like global warming experts, I see so many space experts. Not.
@ddferrari
You have to be kidding. Space exploration is not a luxury, it's a necessity.
The environment we live under doesn't stop at the top layers of the
atmosphere, it extends well into space. We are susceptible to space weather,
as in solar storms that are emitted by the Sun. These storms can make your
electricity go out, disrupt your telecommunication satellites and GPS, and
other things that you mistakingly take for granted. Spending money on Sun
research adds to our persistently growing volume of knowledge, and the
possibility of one day predicting when these storms will be headed our way.
The more we know the better we can defend against it. We already have
satellites parked in a gravitationally neutral spot in space that study the Sun in
ways other generations only dreamt of.
We should thank NASA and science for this, and especially to those who
thought that spending the money was worth it. There was a solar storm in
1859 that was reported to set telegraph wires and paper on fire, it was that
intense. It can happen again, at any time. It wasn't much of a problem back in
the middle 1800's as people lived a simpler electronic-free life. Nowadays,
with all of our dependence on electronics of all kinds and its close integration
with our daily lives (think your computer hard drives, for example), a massive
solar storm headed in our direction could cost a tremendous amount more
(tens of billions to trillions) in infrastructure damage and societal/economic
setbacks. These Sun/space probes are much needed investments to learn
more about our complex Sun, and to our stability as a functioning society,
and by no means should be considered a luxury that we have an option to put
off for a stormy day.
Get with the space program.
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darkling282
09/10/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
@clh201 its probably idiots like you who would say that we dont really need air or water to survive. It is discoverys and research like this that has gotten us this far technologically speaking. If it wherent for the discoverys made by nasa we'd be about 50 years behind the rest of the world from a technical stand point.
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darkling282
09/10/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
aplologies my last post was directed at collinlv apologies to clh201 by the way your corecction was correct.
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darkling282
09/10/10 | Report as spam
RE: NASA plans to fly a spacecraft directly into the sun
@ddferrari are you really so stupid as to not realise that the technologies we will get from this will save more lives than not doing it will cost us. The reality is that not only will this mission prove beneficial but there are alot of facts pointing to it being necissary.
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ddferrari
09/10/10 | Report as spam
@ darkling282
Before you call someone stupid, you should make sure there aren't any typos or run-on sentences in your post:
It's realize and necessary, not realise and necisarry.
I'm sure that all the starving children in America will be instantly sated once the data comes back from this mission. Uh-huh.
@Chiatzu I am with the space program and I love science and astronomy as much as the next person- I'll reconsider my views on the necessity of these missions.
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