Parker Solar Probe and More!

Monthly Sky Report: Jim Eagle.

Featured speaker: Apurva Varia, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Mr. Varia is the Mission Operations Director for Parker Solar Probe (PSP) and Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and Deputy Mission Operations Director for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).  Mr. Varia will focus his talk on the Parker Solar Probe mission.

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) is a NASA mission that explores the Sun’s atmosphere.  Launched on 12 August 2018, the PSP has already flown closer to the Sun’s surface than any other spacecraft. Using Venus as a gravity assist to maneuver the probe close to the Sun’s Corona, it will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun on its closest approach in 2025.

Apurva Varia joined the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2002 as a propulsion engineer. He has analyzed, designed, and tested the propulsion systems for several spacecraft, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Magnetospheric Multiscale, and Deep Space Climate Observatory.