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Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by remarkEon on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @02:07AM (#29562934)
Since getting that close takes a lot of DeltaV and I was curious:

>The Parker Solar Probe mission design uses repeated gravity assists at Venus to incrementally decrease its orbital perihelion to achieve a final altitude (above the surface) of approximately 8.5 solar radii, or about 6×106 km (3.7×106 mi; 0.040 au).[35] The spacecraft trajectory will include seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its elliptical orbit around the Sun, for a total of 24 orbits.[1] The near Sun radiation environment is predicted to cause spacecraft charging effects, radiation damage in materials and electronics, and communication interruptions, so the orbit will be highly elliptical with short times spent near the Sun.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Solar_Probe

Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by marcodiego on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @10:24AM (#29567137)
> 6×106 km

Please... 6×10^6 km

Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by Kye on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @01:52PM (#29570103)
I don't know why the wiki doesn't just say six million kilometers.
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by actually_a_dog on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:36PM (#29572933)
Scientific notation makes it easier to indicate how many significant digits you have in the measurement.
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by juloo on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @03:15PM (#29571053)
Or 6 Gigameters.
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by mensetmanusman on Thursday December 16, 2021 @07:32AM (#29577497)
Or 6e6 km :)
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by dmurray on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:02AM (#29564792)
Highly elliptical orbits are cheaper to achieve anyway, right? You can get into one directly from your Venus gravity assists, and not have to keep precious fuel to transfer to a circular orbit later on.
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by ceejayoz on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @09:55AM (#29566743)
Yes.

As a bonus in this particular case, it limits your time in the higher temperatures of the corona; the spacecraft gets time to radiate heat and cool off before the next skim through.

Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by djxfade on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @11:59AM (#29568564)
Why not just write 636 km?
Re:NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever by chias on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @12:45PM (#29569171)
It was meant to be 6×10^6 -- as a quick soundness check, the sun's radius is significantly more than 75 km (636 / 8.5) -- though I agree it would probably have been more reasonable to just write "6 million km"