Parker Solar Probe
After nearly three years in space, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has not only made numerous passes around our fiery orb, inching closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it, but it has also ushered in discoveries that are shaping scientists’ understanding of Earth’s star.For its efforts to untangle the long-standing mysteries of the complex solar environment, the Parker Solar Probe team has earned the National Space Club and Foundation’s Nelson P. Jackson Award, which recognizes the most outstanding contribution to aerospace in the preceding year.Designed, built and operated by APL, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft has successfully endured the brutal conditions near the Sun’s corona with the help of its cutting-edge heat shield, water-cooled solar panels and high-precision guidance and autonomy systems, allowing for unprecedented and long-awaited close-up observations of our star.These observations are addressing questions that puzzled scientists for decades, such as how the Sun’s corona is heated and how the solar wind accelerates through space to inevitably impact our environment on Earth.The Parker Solar Probe team has started piecing that puzzle together, thanks to the intrepid spacecraft and its suite of instruments, which have given scientists a look at the previously unseen dust-free zone surrounding the Sun, as well as front-seat views of the turbulent activity near its surface.
