Solar Probe: Close Encounter with the Sun

The Solar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) recently completed a detailed study of the Solar Probe Mission based on an earliest launch date of October 2014. Solar Probe, when implemented, will be the first close encounter by a spacecraft with a star (i.e., 3 Rs above the Sun s photosphere). The report and its executive summary were published by NASA (NASA/TM-2005-212786) in September 2005 and can be found at the website http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/. A description of the science is being prepared for publication in Reviews of Geophysics by McComas et al. [2006]. For this talk, we will be presenting the consensus view of the STDT including a brief description of the scientific goals, a description of the overall mission, including trajectory scenarios, spacecraft description and proposed scientific payload. We will discuss all these topics and the importance of flying the Solar Probe mission both with regard to understanding fundamental issues of solar wind acceleration and coronal heating near the Sun and Solar Probe s unique role in understanding the acceleration of Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs), which is critical to future Human Exploration.