Atmospheric, Oceanic Space Sciences News Release
College of Engineering
University of Michigan

NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission has passed the Key Decision Point C (KDP-C) Confirmation Review, which is the agency-level approval for the project to transition from formulation to implementation.

Solar Probe Plus will fly into the Sun’s outer atmosphere and gather data on the processes that heat the corona and accelerate the solar wind, solving two fundamental mysteries that have been top-priority science goals for many decades.

Associate Professor Justin Kasper is the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation on Solar Probe Plus. SWEAP is the set of instruments on the spacecraft that will directly measure the properties of the plasma in the solar atmosphere. A special component of SWEAP is a small instrument that will look around the protective heat shield of the spacecraft directly at the Sun. This will allow SWEAP to sweep up a sample of the atmosphere and touch the Sun, our star, for the first time.

To learn more about Solar Probe Plus, click here