Talk:Solar Orbiter

Version of Atlas
Do we know what Variant of the Atlas it will be launching on? As in 441, 401 ect — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.31.21.76 (talk) 00:26, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Strange sentence

 * "By 2012 the design is will take it as close as 45 RS."

I think something is wrong with this sentence. --Neitram (talk) 19:18, 11 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I think it should read "By 2012 the design is to take it as close as 45 Rs." SUPERHETRODYNE (talk) 17:37, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Altitude ?
The infobox claims the "Altitude" is 3,340,000 km (2,080,000 mi). This cannot be correct, as it would place it only about 0.026 AU from the Sun's center, ~37X closer than Earth. I guess I will just go ahead and change it to the perihelion distance, minus the solar radius. Except I see I apparently do not know how to use the infobox. But what I have done effectively deletes the altitude from the box, so I'll just leave it for someone else to fix. Wwheaton (talk) 23:41, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Progress
Is the project fully funded, and what is state of construction ? - Rod57 (talk) 13:11, 19 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Yes it is fully funded, that is why it is being implemented -built and tested. BatteryIncluded (talk) 15:45, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
 * thanks. Perhaps we could have a History section and/or Current status. History could, eg. say when and why the launch was changed from 2017 to 2019. Current status (could be a final subsection in History) could say how funding request, build, test, flight is proceeding ? - Rod57 (talk) 17:11, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Could have a Design section
A new Design section could :
 * confirm if it is 3-axis stabilised, what spacecraft bus it is based on
 * state which (all?) solar remote-sensing instruments observe through capped holes in the heat shield (unlike Parker Solar Probe)
 * describe construction of heat shield (contrast with PSP)
 * say when data can be transmitted. The high gain antenna needs to be pulled into the shade during perihelion.
 * say if the entire craft will be reoriented to aim the HG antenna at earth, or if the dish has one or two axis of tilt.
 * say that the solar panels will be tilted during perihelion to avoid overheating
 * - Rod57 (talk) 09:25, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Power in infobox?
Is the power listed in the infobox correct? It says 180 W, which seems very low given the images (implied size of the solar arrays) and the distance from the Sun. The reference is trying to be facts sheet on an ESA web page, but the link is broken. The facts sheet I could find didn't list the power. Fcrary (talk) 00:23, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Use of Jupiter?
A previous mission to the Sun required the use of Jupiter and exploitation of the slingshot-effect. There is no mention of Jupiter here. Was such a detail omitted, or has there been an increase in available rocket launch velocity? This would be interesting to know. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.2.156.175 (talk) 12:44, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
 * You seem to be thinking of Ulysses of 1980. That did indeed use a gravitational slingshot by Jupiter to achieve a polar orbit around the Sun.  It took years to get to the Sun for the first time, and the resulting orbit continued to take it out as far as Jupiter's orbit.  The Solar Orbiter will not to out to Jupiter.  It will use a couple of gravitational assists (slingshots) from Venus, and one from Earth, to achieve its initial orbit.  That initial orbit is designed so that it will encounter Venus regularly.  Then over several years, it will get several more gravitational assists from Venus to tilt its orbit farther and farther away from the Sun's equator and closer and closer to its poles.
 * Ulysses was launched by the Space Shuttle, and had further rockets behind it to send it to Jupiter. That didn't happen with the Solar Orbiter, of course.  So it's difficult to compare the powers of the launch.  Uporządnicki (talk) 15:11, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:37, 5 May 2022 (UTC)
 * The Sun by Solar Orbiter.jpg

ESA changed their website from  to  - affects lots of pages.
Hi, ESA changed their website from  to  sometime after December 2020 and May 2021. The former site is no longer being maintained. I've just amended the Solar Observer page to reflect this - changed the 'website' in the main top-of-page box, and added new site to the External links part. Other links to old site will be ok for now because the old site is still in place - it's just not going to be updated in future (though I suppose, at some point, the old site may be deleted altogether).

This will impact lots of pages relating to ESA missions, right? So, should someone do some kind of global change, if such a thing is possible? (a 'bot'?). It's way beyond my expertise! I just thought I'd float the boat.

Ta, Gordon. Gordon Panther (talk) 23:33, 24 December 2022 (UTC)