The Solar Probe mission and system design history

Abstract

This is an invited overview of the history of the Solar Probe mission and system design that includes a review of some of the basic mission requirements, as well as a review of the evolution of the spacecraft designs over the past two decades. The mission requirements reflect the recent changes in scientific objectives and instrument design concepts. Another recent mission change is the new joint design concept with the Russians. They will design a spacecraft called Plamya to arrive simultaneously at perihelion at a radial distance of 10 solar radii (versus 4 solar radii for the U.S. Solar Probe). The U.S. Solar Probe design has evolved from an ancient “Galileo” class spacecraft with a mass of over 1000 kg to a modern “lightsat” class spacecraft with a mass of less than 200 kg. The project cost has been reduced by almost an order of magnitude during this history.