Parker Team Talks Extreme Exploration at International Conference

Parker Solar Probe featured at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) meeting Sept. 19 in Paris, as part of a highlighted talk, "Extreme Exploration: Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter Trailblazing Around the Sun."

Moderated by Jason Kalirai, mission area executive for Civil Space at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, the talk featured Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist Nour Raouafi, also of APL, and Solar Orbiter Project Scientist Daniel Muller, of the European Space Agency. The experts covered the "firsts" of each bold flagship mission and drew connections between the new observations from each mission and how what we are learning from them about the Sun impacts our lives here on Earth.

Parker Solar Probe - built and operated at APL, which also manages the mission for NASA - launched in 2018. The probe is venturing closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft to answer long-standing questions, such as how the solar wind and energetic particles are accelerated and transported throughout our solar system. In April 2021, Parker crossed over into the solar atmosphere for the first time in history, breaking one of the last frontiers of solar system exploration.

Solar Orbiter, a mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, launched in 2020. Solar Orbiter performed its first close solar flyby in March 2022, taking the closest-ever images of the Sun while measuring the composition of the solar wind to establish the causal connection between the Sun and the bubble of the heliosphere.

Covering all space sectors and topics, IAC attracts more than 4,000 participants each year. Sessions cover the latest space information and developments in academia and industry. Learn more at http://iac2022.org/.