When Icarus tried it, he came down to Earth with a bump. In fact, not so
long ago scientists at NASA described the very idea of a mission to the
Sun as "far out" and "probably impossible". But that didn't stop them
trying. At the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, engineer Jim
Randolph is putting the finishing touches to a very special spacecraft.
In six years' time, Randolph's Solar Probe will begin a long, hot
journey which will take it to just a few million kilometres from the
Sun. There it will watch waves of searing gas slosh across the solar
surface, witness fiery tornadoes the size of Earth, and perhaps even
snatch a sample of star. NASA has high hopes for its "Sun chaser", which
could reveal where the solar wind comes from and help us predict the
magnetic storms that can wreck communications satellites and bring down
power grids. As Randolph says, it's "just so different from anything
ever done before".
http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns22741
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