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Spacecraft Hits Speeds That Could Make the Earth-Moon Distance an Under-One-Hour Trip

The distance between the Earth and the Moon is of about 240,000 miles (385,000 km). Not much, by the solar system’s standards, but large enough to have taken the Apollo missions over ten days to reach the Moon after departing Earth. The Parker Solar Probe could do that in much less than an hour.
Parker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the Sun 6 photos
Photo: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
Parker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the SunParker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the SunParker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the SunParker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the SunParker Solar Probe on 10th pass around the Sun
This spacecraft was launched back in the summer of 2018 and was described even back then as the fastest spacecraft humans have ever built. Destined to circle the Sun closer than anything else before it, the spacecraft is eventually expected to reach a top speed of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kph).

It’s not quite there yet, but it’s getting closer to that target with every close approach to the star of our solar system. The last such event occurred on November 21, when the probe reached a distance from the solar surface of just 5.3 million miles (8.5 million km) during its ten passes around the star.

In doing so, NASA clocked its speed at 364,660 miles per hour (586,864 kph), making that Earth to the Moon trip we, humans, are once again dreaming of child’s play.

As said, that is a fraction of the speed the spacecraft is eventually expected to reach, but so is the distance from the Sun. Sometime over the next four years (there will be 24 passes in total), it should approach the flaming inferno at just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km).

The spacecraft’s mission is to gather more information about the Sun and its behavior so we humans can better predict space weather events. The probe is run by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and was launched as part of the Living with a Star Program (LWS) that seeks to get a better idea of how space weather affects us all here on Earth.

The mission is a long-duration one, so we don’t really expect any major breakthroughs soon, other than, of course, the speed records that keep falling.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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