The concept of a probe to fly directly into the solar corona, the source of the solar wind, was initially proposed in the mid-1970s - this concept is known as Solar Probe. The scale and concept of Solar Probe has been revised at intervals since that time, yet the core has always been a close encounter with the Sun. Previous incarnations of this mission centered around a Jupiter gravity assist for solar polar injection and a nuclear power source. In 2007, NASA tasked APL to conduct a new study to determine the feasibility of a non-nuclear mission that would achieve the science objectives determined by an independent Science and Technology Definition Team. The result is a mission called Solar Probe+ in recognition of the potential science gains of the current concept over its predecessors. In this paper, we first present a brief history of the Solar Probe concept, a summary of the trade studies conducted to meet the challenges given above, changes to science implementation from previous missions, and the mission implementation concept for Solar Probe+.
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