Science and Society

Thats cool! I've always found old Sol to be one of the coolest things to observe. I got bit by the Sun bug back when I ran a small observatory as a teenager. We had a 16 inch Schmidt-Cassagran(Spelling) fitted with a Hydrogen Alpha filter. This was during the last Solar Maximum, so it was spectacular. I'll sure be watching this one.

Ok, now here's the joke without the politically correct slant LOL. Since I'm old enough to remember it, here goes. All the nations got together in the early days of space exploration. The large nations - USA, USSR etc started laying claim to the planets they wanted to explore. Poland was silent until the end of the discussion when the Polish ambassador raised his hand. The head of the delegation asked him what he wanted, because all the planets were gone. He then said they wanted the sun - now insert punch line.

Come on, Lawrence, the Sun Cool? Really punny, you are. Actually, that would be an exciting mission to follow. Only 4 million miles from the sun should strain the technology of radiation-hardening a spacecraft, plus the added necessity of shielding it from the intense heat. The first time it encounters a Coronal Mass Ejection should be an eye-opener.

COOL!!yea it is..BUT think about it your risking your life...the protection will be no match for the sun....you will blow up or be caught on fire..the son is millions and millions high in degrees....KEEP THAT IN MIND!!!

THANKS..

It's not the heat, it's the humidity!

At least they won't have to worry about a power source for the probe...the solar strength that close would be enough to power the probe for decades! I wonder if they will have it set up for streaming video as it gets closer?

Cool? yes. But exactly how unnecessary is a trip like this? I mean...isn't there better uses for our money than tryin to do "cool" things. Iknow, I know...someone tell me about the scientific implications of such a trip.

And I can come up with many more causes here just at home, not even around THIS planet which would better benefit man kind.

Oh, so NASA's going to waste another billion $$ on a useless and unncessary mission. We can learn everything we need to know about the Sun from right here on Earth. In fact, there very little wbout it at this point that we don't understand. Why don't we chage NASA with turning it's brilliant scientists' minds toward the goal of reversing global warming? Oh, wait that's practical. Never mind.

WOW! Where is the money going to come from for this one?

Dave,

True, there are more "important" things, depending upon who you ask. However, knowing as much as we can about the sun is vital. There's more than one variable in climate change modeling, and one of them is the sun. Plus, as the article mentions, when the sun acts up it can cause extensive blackouts, fry equipment, and potentially cause expensive problems.

PZ, Oh Lord:

I am of the firm belief that a percentage of GDP should be spent (even if it is wasted). How else can you spurn innovations without taking risk? Anyway, now I have an idea - why not generate electricity from the probe (using solar panels) and put it to use (somehow).

Don't mess with the sun ....leave it alone!

Need federal money for this project? Just cut the federal gas tax for the summer and invest all that saved money in the solar probe.I'm willing to send my $30.00 in savings for this probe! Anybody else?

If they send it close enough, and sling-shot it around the Sun, the probe can go back in time and deliver it's data to the early Apollo Program. Unless Gary 7 tries to stop it.

No Wingy...the gas tax is a scam. They need that money for other things that are already promised and they;'ll just have to get it back from you inother ways. Sorry ....not with you.

Let say that they get around the sun and then what. They won't be able to see a thing because of the carbon-composite heat shields surrounding the Solar Prove... If you thinking what about the glass window protected with some sort of shields... Such protection to glass won't do anything against the intensive heat the sun ejects. No matter what kind of glass they put on the Probe, the sun will melt it killing everyone inside the spacecraft.

Lets be realistic about that trip. How can they possibly be able to carry so much fuel inside the Probe to power it for 4.1 million miles of distance. If they heading straight to the sun, the sun will heat up the reserve tanks that the spacecraft carries and then ignite it causing a catastrophe instead of a scientific discovery.

I hope NASA has a better understanding than me on taking precautions because this trip will only prove how unprepared they really are. If they are thinking that the shields will be enough to keep them safe from frying, I would say that they are just jumping on hot lava... In my personal opinion, the shields won't be enough to protect the spacecraft and themselves against the SUN.

The question is how far are they really willing to go before they realize that they are not prepared for that kind of trip?

Science is always worth the cost of gathering it, but forget public funding. Madison Avenue should sell ad space on the rockets and on the launchpad. Every NASA spacecraft should resemble a NASCAR racecraft.

"The Sun Chips Solar Probe, brought to you by Ray-Ban, Hawaiian Tropic, Billabong Swimwear, and by Wal-Mart. For cities without a Chinatown, there's Wal-Mart. Astronauts, start your engines..."

Ok! wait...SUN! what!!!! How much is it going to cost us?...here's the joke for you guys...Sun is full of gases!..come on let's do something productive here....

What planet do you people live on?

Certainly not earth if you think we are sending humans to the sun as some of your comments posted above suggest. 'BUT think about it your risking your life', 'Astronauts, start your engines...', etc. lol. Did you even read the link to the project 'Solar Probe', stating 'Solar Probe will be a historic mission, flying into one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the Sun’s atmosphere or corona, for the first time.'?

Yes we have explored almost every region of our small solar system, including Saturn, Mars, and even Uranus. And which of you "space cadets" thinks that we actually sent astronauts to any of these planets (unmanned probes yes), we have only sent humans to the moon and it is only a meer 250,000 miles. If you are not smart enough enough to know what a solar probe is and that it is UNMANNED, then you definitaly should not be making decisions of what is worth while and benficial to man-kind and our blue planet earth. And I am sure there are many other places budget cuts could be made benificial and benfit the human race... lets start with the money we waste with a war machine of man killing man. If we could do that, then world hunger and global warming would solve themselves. Oh my god and I am not even a tree hugger. Wake-up world. If we do not find our place in the universe mankind will soon be extinct.

i cant belive these crazy things

Dont believe anything NASA says 99% of what they put out there is pure bs Whatever they do is only to is for thier own greater good Wake up America Make NASA accountabe.

What if it goes wrong and put's the sun out.

As a fundamentalist Christian I believe that NASA is playing god with the Planet Earth. The pursuit of scinece is witchcraft and should be banned, as should all medicines and medical treatments.

Unless of course it is me that needs the treatments.

Don't worry, George Bush will cut the funding for this before he leaves office. This money could be much better spent getting people killed in Iraq.

Yes, this would be an un-manned probe.

Yes, this will likely force out a number of technological advancements.

Yes, our country need to continue to advance in this arena unless of course we want to become a territory of China.

George Bush has stopped innocent people getting killed on our soil dead in its tracks and confronted our enemy. I appreciate his tendency to action versus inaction. The US turned a blind's eye to Hitler in 1938-39 and it cost 50,000,000 lives, 500,000 of those or so American.

Our country, economy, opportunities and wealth have continued to grow since 2001 because he took the war off our soil.

Watch "MIB 1", scene when K gets in J's face for shooting his cricket in the view of the public.

As you grow older you will understand what I am saying.

"...this will give us a better understanding...at a cost of..." Meanwhile, gas prices are going up, so is unemployment, housing prices are dropping, and so many other problems that need our attention and money! After the world has agreed to share, and the objective of all humans is self improvement for the benefit of us all, then we can explore the Sun.

As a fundamentalist Christian I believe that NASA is playing god with the Planet Earth. The pursuit of scinece is witchcraft and should be banned, as should all medicines and medical treatments.

Oh geez I hope this is a joke. Pretty scary

Go NASA! Every dime we have ever spent on space has been returned many times over in benefits right here on Earth. This is especially true in medicine but it applies to any field in which engineering plays a part - which includes everything.

Our cars are safer because of light weight, high strength materials originally developed for space flight. Our cell phones have more computing power than the ship and module used for the first Moon landing; again as a direct result of the space program. Our kitchens are safer due to heat resistant materials developed specifically for the space program, and more efficient thanks to thin, light insulating materials from space research.

Nearly everything that involves imaging of any sort came from NASA research (think about CAT scans, sonograms, etc). Likewise everything that involves miniturization of any kind. Look around; things that we all take for granted wouldn't be around without the investments made in space research. The truth is that without the research and development from the space program, our daily lives would be much different. Many of us who have had to undergo serious medical procedures in the last two decades are alive solely because of the advances made by the space program.

So, once again, Go NASA, GO!! I have no idea what new miracles will come from the development of a solar probe, but I have no doubt that they will find uses here on Earth, some hitting the market before the probe even clears the launch pad. And, based on the history of our space program, these new things will benefit us far beyond the cost of the probe mission itself.

>>>What if it goes wrong and put's the sun out.

As a fundamentalist Christian I believe that NASA is playing god with the Planet Earth. The pursuit of scinece is witchcraft and should be banned, as should all medicines and medical treatments.

Unless of course it is me that needs the treatments.
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Funny!