On August 12, 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe began its mission to enter the sun. In the science and technology field, this is extremely exciting and actually groundbreaking because most people didn’t even think that the idea of a solar probe was possible. The probe is doing well on its mission so far and is already over 2 million miles from Earth.

I have interviewed five different people with different levels of knowledge on the matter:

Miss Megan France

Science Teacher (at SPAS)

Expert level science knowledge

Joshua Chase

Job in Technology and a college degree in Biochemistry (as of 1993)

Above-Average level science knowledge

Sandra Medrano

Job at SPAS

Standard adult education science knowledge

Colin Gibbs

Student at SPAS (eighth grade)

Junior High School science knowledge

Munachi Nwankwo

Student at SPAS (third grade)

Elementary School science knowledge

Responses:

Miss France

Miss France believes that this mission will change the way we view spacecraft’s limits and possibilities. She’s also very excited that a probe gets to go to the sun in her lifetime because 20 years ago, most people didn’t even think that could happen!

In fact, she’s not surprised at the fact that the probe (hopefully) won’t melt in a 6000℉ environment, since “those organizations spend a lot of money on these metals, and it would look bad in the public eye if they failed”.

Joshua Chase

Chase believes that what makes this mission truly unique is that it will be “the fastest probe in history by using the power of the sun’s gravity”. He explains this and says it is called the slingshot maneuver, which is a well-known concept to the STEM field.

Chase also believes this mission is completely worth the tax money he’s paying and that he’d love to see NASA try sending one of their probes to Alpha Centauri in his lifetime.

Sandra Medrano

Ms. Medrano had never heard of this mission before I told her for this interview. However, she does think that this mission might be a good use of her tax money. She was interested and had never thought a space probe could go to the sun.

Colin Gibbs

Gibbs didn’t know about this mission before he was informed. He’s not one to choose to look into what’s happening in space but does think this event could be in future history books.

Munachi Nwankwo

Young Nwankwo had never heard of a spaceship going to the sun, but now thinks he will definitely remember this happening in his lifetime. He believes a probe going to the sun’s corona is a good thing, since “you can find out more about the sun” doing so.

So there you have it! Five different opinions on the Parker Solar Probe mission launch.