At its closest point, the Sun is 147 million kilometers away from Earth. The star that gives us life is our most faithful neighbor.
Missions have left our planet to explore it, ships and instruments to know it in depth, such as the Parker probe. But even though it seems crazy, Some people ask if it is possible for a person to travel to the Sun.
Obviously, with current technology it is not possible. And in the future? Nah, neither.
National Geographic spoke about the topic with an expert, Alejandro Farah Simón, member of the Astronomy Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University Space Program.
“With today’s technology, traveling to the Sun is an impossible mission”, Farah Simón pointed out. “The surface of our star, as well as practically the rest of it, is composed of hydrogen and helium. To begin with, that means that there is no solid area to perch on.”
“On the other hand, The average temperature in this outer layer is around 5,500 °C. The above means that there is no material that supports these temperatures in a solid state,” added the astronomer.
Farah Simón points out that the temperature of the solar corona is hundreds of times higher, so The navigation system would be quite complex, in order to avoid ejections.
In the future, more missions will join to send instruments to the Sun, after the Parker probe. NASA approved the MUSE (Multi-slit Solar Explorer) and HelioSwarm missions, in order to “help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun – Earth connection and the constantly changing space environment.”
While MUSE was given a budget of 192 million dollars, HelioSwarm was given one of 250 million dollars.
“These missions not only expand the science of our other heliophysics missions, but also provide a unique perspective and a novel approach to understand the mysteries of our star,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.