Wouter de Wet
A Signal Mountain alumnus is involved in a historic space probe that will be the fastest spacecraft in history and is now scheduled for launch early Sunday morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Dr. Wouter de Wet has been checking instruments on and will analyze data sent back from two radiation detectors that are part of NASA’s high-profile Parker Solar Probe. He graduated from Signal Mountain Middle High School in 2010.
Dr. de Wet is employed as a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center, which is serving as the Science Operations Center for radiation detectors aboard the Parker Space Probe.
Weather permitting, NASA will launch its newest spacecraft, at 3:31 a.m. EDT Sunday aboard a huge United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, which is one of the world’s most powerful rockets — with a third stage added.
NASA tweeted that “Even though the Parker Solar Probe is fairly light for a spacecraft at about 1,400 pounds, it's launching aboard one of the most powerful rockets available. That's because it's surprisingly hard to go to the Sun — it takes 55 times more energy as it does to go to Mars!”
The probe will make its journey all the way to the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history. Solar scientists say this will be the first time they’ll be able to see objects of their study up close and personal.
“Our primary goal is to study the formation and evolution of solar storms,” said Dr. de Wet.
He is a member of the ISOIS team, which stands for Integrated Science Investigations of the Sun. It includes members from the California Institute of Technology (or CalTech), Princeton, John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, and the Southwest Research Institute in addition to the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center, where Dr. de Wet works.
“We’re in charge of taking and analyzing science data from the spacecraft,” Dr. de Wet said.
NASA said the Parker Solar Probe should reach its first close approach of the Sun by year’s end. Dr. de Wet expects his team will start receiving data by late spring or early summer.
This weekend’s launch will be the first rocket launch for a mission that he’s worked on.
“It’s a bit surreal,” he admits, “and it will be even more surreal so to watch it take off and then again when we start getting science data.”
Dr. de Wet has been fascinated with space ever since his parents took him and his brothers to see one of the last shuttle launches in Florida.
After graduating from Signal, Dr. de Wet attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he studied Nuclear Engineering and received his B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees. He worked in conjunction with NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., for his PhD and has served on other teams in the space radiation research field.
Another mission he works on is the CRaTER (Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation) instrument aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
He said his current work with the Parker Space Probe is expected to continue “for many many years.”
Dr. de Wet’s younger brother, Dane (another SMMHS alum) is studying Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley and is currently working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Their parents, Johannes and Santie de Wet, still live on Signal Mountain, and his older brother, Hannes, is in Chattanooga. Family and friends plan to get up early again in the morning in hopes the rocket will be launched after being rescheduled the last two days.
Dr. de Wet has fond memories of his time at SMMHS, where he said teacher Kathy McCormack was “the first teacher that stoked my love in math and science.”