NASA’s Solar Probe Plus Craft to Use Specially Designed Solar Panels for Power

NASA, a U.S. government agency engaged in the exploration of space, has ventured into a mission to study the effects of sun more closely than the previous missions. The solar panels deployed for the mission will go very close to the celestial stars than before.

The Solar Probe Plus craft planned for the purpose will initially fly by Venus a number of times as a part of its effort to use its seven gravity assists to increase the speed of the space craft and to save on its propelling time as well as costs. The space craft will reach closer to 6.4 million km to the surface of the sun into its corona region where no space craft has reached so far. The space craft in the size of a car will be installed with specially created heat resisting solar panels that automatically fold within the shadows of a defensive solar shade and expose only an accurately angled solar panel to generate power. NASA expects the carbon-composite heat shields of the craft to endure temperatures exceeding 1,400° C. The craft and the solar panels will also be open to the intense solar radiation and expected to withstand it.

The Solar Probe Plus solar mission comes under the Living with a Star Program of NASA aimed to help people realize the various features of the sun and the earth and the space environment that influences people’s lives and society on earth.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/about/index.html