The Solar Travellers

Thane | On the Way to the Sun

"PARKER'S MULTIVERSE"

High-Level Project Summary

Inspite of being the closest star to Earth,the Sun has always remained an enigma to researchers the world over,which prompted us to take on the challenge “On The Way To The Sun”The Sun has a superheated atmosphere.ie.the corona made of solar material bound to the Sun by gravity and magnetic forces. As rising heat and pressure push that material away from the Sun, there is a point in space where gravity and magnetic fields are too weak to contain it.This point known as the Alfvén critical surface marks the end of the solar atmosphere and the beginning of the solar wind. On August 12, 201 the Parker Solar Probe was launched into space to find the Alfvén critical surface, decode the mysteries

Link to Final Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ygELUqkSjU

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtube.com/shorts/vIrSPrJHkBo?feature=share

Detailed Project Description

"PARKER'S MULTIVERSE"


Our project is an attempt to recreate the story of the Parker solar probe by means of a comic strip.

It opens with a teacher narrating a story to her pupils. All the planets in the solar system have been depicted as kingdoms with the Sun as their ruler, who has toiled long and hard to create these kingdoms. The asteroid belt has been shown as a river flowing in between Mars and Jupiter.


The human species on Earth one day decide that they want to meet their creator, the king of all kingdoms- King Surya or The sun of the solar system. High temperature, magnetic field, solar wind, and all the hurdles have been represented as the Sun's security force and his army. After a lot of brainstorming, the people of the earth create a warrior who reaches the sun for the first time in history. He is aided in this task by Venus who hastens this process.


The scene suddenly cuts to an apprehensive PARKER is now shown as a solar probe, voicing his fears to a rocket DELTA IV who is just about to launch him into space. Parker shares with Delta the aforementioned, extraordinary vision he had wherein he was a warrior, which has in fact allayed some of his fears and reservations and emboldened him for the long journey to the Sun.


Delta reassures him and reminds him of FIELDS, SWEAP, ISIS, WISPR, and all the instruments aboard the probe which have been personified too.


The story then depicts how Parker along with these friends overcomes the treacherous path to the Sun and finally creates history on April 28, 2021, by "touching the Sun".

This comprehensive simplified version of this mission has been made such that it can be enjoyed and understood by children and people from all fields.


We are sure this easy tool of communication will be instrumental in educating the masses about such an important event that happened the past year which so many of us are still unaware of.


We used the Canva Application and resources on the NASA SpaceApps platform to bring this to fruition.

Space Agency Data

·        Parker Solar Probe Touches the Sun

To learn about the Parker probe's journey

·        NASA's Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun For The First Time

To have a better understanding of the challenges faced by the probe

·        Parker Solar Probe’s Heat Shield (Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?)

To learn about the materials used for making the shield

·        Space Weather and How it Affects Earth - Five Questions and Answers

To learn about the solar wind, particles, and their interaction with the earth's magnetic field

·        http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/

To see the exact trajectory and to get live data

·        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfv%C3%A9n_surface

To learn about Alfvén surface

·        https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/switchbacks-science-explaining-parker-solar-probe-s-magnetic-puzzle

To learn about switchback

Hackathon Journey

Embarking upon this hackathon journey has been quite an unexpected one for our team of two.

We are two individuals from vastly different backgrounds -one a surgeon and the other a science content developer- bound by our shared interest and enthusiasm for space, interstellar travel, and the infinite unknown.

Hence the challenge, ‘On The Way To The Sun’ caught our eye. We wanted to create an innovative way to communicate to readers a fragment of the extensive research and missions which are continually underway at NASA.

We were quite apprehensive initially since this was our first time participating, but the plethora of resources available on the NASA SpaceApps platform put us at ease.

Through this journey, we ourselves learned a lot about the Parker Solar Probe, named after Dr.Eugene Parker who first proposed this idea way back in 1958. We also studied a great deal about the Sun, the making of the Parker Solar Probe, the perils it faced en route to the Sun, and finally how it created history by ‘touching the Sun '.

We hence decided to make this comic strip, “PARKER’S MULTIVERSE” light-hearted yet informative which will appeal to younger audiences as well as the general masses alike. With this concise, pictorial story we hope to inspire, educate and create awareness among all cohorts of society.

We would like to thank Dr.Poornima Mahesh and Dr.Rajiv Iyer from Jivna Mitra Edutech LLP, the Local Lead for this challenge for guiding us and bringing together two space enthusiasts.

And, of course, we are forever grateful to NASA for giving us this opportunity by organizing the NASA International SpaceApps Challenge 2022and for helping us bring this task to fruition.

References

Tags

#ParkerSolarProbe #Story #Sun #Switchback #aurora #Canva #NASA

On the Way to the Sun

On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, Parker Solar Probe did what no other human-made object has ever done: it “touched” the Sun—meaning the spacecraft flew through the Sun’s upper atmosphere (the corona) and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. Your challenge is to develop a creative way to tell young audiences the inspiring story of Parker’s record-breaking journey from Earth to the Sun and all the perils it overcame on the way.