William Matthaeus, University of Delaware (IMAGE) University of Delaware Caption University of Delaware professor William Matthaeus says that NASA's Solar Probe Plus mission will not only advance scientific understanding of the solar wind and the heliosphere, but also likely will result in other practical and commercial applications. "NASA developed many aspects of aerospace technology that later became very useful -- in airplane design, communications satellites, GPS systems, microwave technology, computers and computer networking. Solar Probe incorporates some advanced heat shield design that will probably become more widely used eventually," he says. Credit University of Delaware Usage Restrictions Image must include credit to University of Delaware. License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.