While there are several scientists from several countries who joined in helio-physicists have made a device for approaching the Sun, to examine it as closely as possible. To support research,the Russians plan to launch spacecraft to the Sun.
The first idea to send a spacecraft to the Sun derived from the Russian scientific community in 1970 (in the Brezhnev period).However,at the beginning of that first project,an unmanned aircraft was technically unfeasible.Now experts from the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism,ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation or Pushkov (IZMIRAN), Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences (FIAN) and other researchers, are working to complete the project Interhelioprobe. Director of the Institute for Space Studies by Academics of Sciences of Russia, Lev Zelyony, said it is possible that this spacecraft will be able to approach the Sun at an altitude of 10-12 solar radii.
With this close spacing, the threat of danger is going to appear. Besides the danger of overheating, is also the danger of evaporation under the sun rays that can cause errors in measurement.
Therefore, who will become the priority is to develop a heat shield that can withstand temperatures to 600 degrees Celsius. Later, it will shield material made from tungsten, molybdenum, and other refractory materials.
"Approaching the Sun is needed to study the phenomenon as 'solar flares'," said Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of IZMIRAN. "The most important also to study the solar cycle and dynamo of the Sun, because until today we still can not predict the beginning and the amplitude of this cycle."
According to Kuznetsov, if able to study and predict solar cycle, will allow to reduce the impact hazard to Earth.
Besides Russia, similar projects are also conducted in other countries. European scientists working for the Solar Orbiter, also are investigating the Sun from a distance of 60 solar radii (the distance is slightly closer than Mercury's orbit). American Solar Probe will be close to the Sun at a distance of only 8.5 radii from the surface.
However, Solar Orbiter will be launched in 2017, and Solar Probe in 2018. Meanwhile, Russian-owned aircraft, it is believed, scientists will be launched in 2015.