Overview of NASA solar physics programsThe program of solar physics missions for the 1980's will include earth-orbiting and solar-orbiting free flying satellites as well as Shuttle sorties carrying large facility instruments and smaller PI-class investigations. Individual missions will have specific, unifying objectives in contrast to the exploratory nature of missions of the 1960's and 70's. The Solar Maximum Mission will study solar flares in 1980 and 1981. The International Solar Polar Mission will swing past Jupiter and traverse the Sun's polar caps in 1986, measuring the high-latitude solar wind. Three of the early Shuttle flights will carry PI-class solar experiments, and the Solar Optical Telescope, to fly in about 1984, will provide extremely high spatial resolution of solar features. Possible future missions include the Solar Cycle and Dynamics Mission to study the Sun's magnetic cycle, and the Solar Probe, which will pass within 4 solar radii of the Sun's surface.
Document ID
19800033330
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
Chipman, E. (NASA Office of Space Science, Solar Terrestrial Div., Washington D.C., United States)
Date Acquired
August 10, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1979
Subject Category
Space Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: Space optics: Imaging X-ray optics workshop