NASA: PARKER SOLAR PROBE

An artist’s impression of the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft approaching the sun.

The space race, once notorious for its drama and political intrigue in recent decades, still has the adroitness to shock. Scientists at NASA, the US space agency, retain the capacity to astonish with their ambition and innovation.

In spite of all that science has discovered about our universe, NASA and its counterparts around the world have long been frustrated by how the Sun has closely guarded its secrets. But the Parker Solar Probe mission, scheduled to launch in 2018, promises to change all that.

In what will become humanity’s first voyage mission to visit a star, the pioneering undertaking will seek to unlock the mysteries at the centre of our solar system. These include the origins of solar winds and why the Sun’s outermost layer is hotter than its surface.

The findings, NASA believes, could have far-reaching implications for how to forecast weather events in space which impact on life on Earth.

The project is to be commissioned over a period of some seven years, at a cost of £1.1bn. Whilst eye-wateringly expensive, if the mission is successful those costs will be far outweighed by crucial scientific insights into the star that gives us heat and light.

The probe will begin its nebulous journey next summer. The world will likely watch on in wonder and hope as scientists search for answers in understanding some of the great enigmas of life and mankind.

. It has hitherto been impossible to enter the sun’s atmosphere, where temperatures start at almost 1,400C.

. The launch date has been given as being between July 31 and August 19, 2018, from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. A super-powered probe travelling at 118 miles per second will overcome the supersonic solar winds, flares and radiation to allow it to get as close to the sun as possible.

. Scientists predict that the Parker Solar Probe will fly to within 3.7million miles of the surface. A previous attempt to gain insight into the star, by Helios 2 in 1976, came within 27 million miles.

. The Sun is Earth’s closest star and is some 93million miles from Earth.

. By predicting major weather events in space would greatly help to combat the threat of communication networks being destroyed on Earth.

. To combat the intense heat, scientists have created a 4.5in carbon composite shield which will maintain the instruments used to record solar flares and shocks at room temperature.

. The probe itself is named in honour of astrophysicist Eugene Parker, now 89, who in 1958 did groundbreaking and pioneering work on understanding solar storms and the solar wind – a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun that causes the Northern Lights.

. Its seven-year mission will use the gravitational field of Venus to orbit the sun 24 times. Scientists predict the probe getting closest in December 2024.