From Mars missions to flying cars: 8 unusual NASA projects

Traveling through the sun's atmosphere

In March, NASA invited people around the world to submit their names online to be sent to the sun. The names were placed on a microchip aboard NASA's historic Parker Solar Probe mission -- launching later this summer.

The mission will travel through the sun's atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions.

The goals are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind and solar energetic particles.

Learning about edges of solar system

NASA

Learning about edges of solar system

NASA is planning a mission -- set to launch in 2024 -- to study the edges of our solar system .

It will sample, analyze and map particles streaming to Earth from the edges of interstellar space.

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission will help researchers better understand the boundaries of the heliosphere, which is described as a magnetic bubble surrounding and protecting our solar system.

The photo above shows an illustration of the early solar system.

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