NASA is planning to announce a new spacecraft intended to visit the Sun! Or at least closer to the Sun than ever before, inside the Sun's corona. The mission is going to be called 'Solar Probe Plus'. There's supposed to be a news conference about it Wednesday, to be live-streamed on NASA's website. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...nce-first-mission-to-sun-corona-a7761971.html It's gonna be bright and toasty down there. The plan seems to be for a small spacecraft that's going to wear its shades and plenty of sun-block, sheltering behind a heat shield like a space-capsule reentering the atmosphere from orbit.
Some Hinode mission details are available here: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode/mission.html The instrument package include an x-ray telescope and an extreme UV (EUV) imaging spectrograph.
Here's a press-release about the Wednesday announcement: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-make-announcement-about-first-mission-to-touch-sun