(dramatic music)
It's a journey to the center
of our solar system,
a mission to gather information
about the most critical celestial body in the sky,
our star,
the sun.
(mysterious music)
September 1st, 2019, marked the third perihelion
for NASA's Parker Solar Probe.
That's the closest point to the sun during one orbit,
the distance of about 15 million miles.
This time tying it's own record,
closer than any spacecraft has ever been.
We're going to go closer to the sun
than any other spacecraft's gone before.
We're not gonna do that once, we're not gonna do it twice,
we're gonna do that 24 times
and that is terrifying.
To be sure, the Parker Solar Probe already has
and will continue to explore uncharted territory,
getting closer and closer
during its planned two dozen passes,
ultimately entering the sun's outer atmosphere,
known as the corona.
A maneuver some are calling touching, or kissing, the sun.
To achieve that the spacecraft will fly
by Venus seven times using the planet's gravity
to slow down, alter its trajectory
and tighten its solar orbit.
If all goes according to plan,
nearly seven years after its mission began,
the probe will eventually swoop within 3.8 million miles
of the sun's surface.
That's 96% closer than our location here on Earth.
We are counting our success
and longevity of the spacecraft
to be able to accomplish that.
But you know, it's our own star
and it's the first mission to a star.
The mission amazes even the man
it's named after, Eugene Parker,
the physicist who first theorized about the solar wind,
the steady stream of charged particles emanating outward
from the sun throughout the planetary system and beyond.
This is a journey into Never Never Land, you might say.
Where it's too hot for any sensible spacecraft to function,
but some very clever engineering
and construction has succeeded
in making what looks like a very workable instrument.
A $1.5 billion,
1,400-pound tool designed to collect data
to help us better comprehend the mechanics of the sun.
(flare booms)
We don't understand the sun.
And when we look at it
we're trying to figure out how does it work?
And a lot of that is how does it work so
we know how it affects us.
Like explosive, coronal mass ejections
and the causes of space weather,
which can disrupt Earth's satellite systems
and telecommunications,
the nervous system of today's modern life.
If you have large amounts of this charged material
coming into the Earth's atmosphere,
it can actually disrupt power grids.
It can blow them out.
So basically, it can introduce surges of power
into our power grids
and take down large power grids across the world.
(ominous music)
It's happened before,
most recently March 13th of 1989 in Quebec, Canada,
leaving three million people without power
for more than seven hours.
An event which shutdown nearly all transportation systems
and cost $10 million in lost revenue.
We need to understand, very close up,
how the sun sheds
these huge clouds
of material,
called coronal mass ejections,
and how these went their way through space
to the vicinity of Earth.
And which ones are going to hit Earth
and which ones are gonna miss Earth.
Information gathered
by the Parker Solar Probe could help lead
to better forecasting of such destructive space weather
and enable better preparations.
(mysterious music)
The Parker Probe also seeks
to understand the magnetic properties of the sun,
helping to answer another basic question
that continues to puzzle scientists.
Why is the solar corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun,
a million or two degrees when the sun itself is only 5,600?
It isn't because of sunshine, that's for sure.
(audience laughs)
The only way that you can really get the grand proof is
to go there, so to speak,
and that's what the solar probe is going to do.
Five, four.
Parker Solar Probe's mission began
under the cover of darkness, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket,
launched the night of August 12th, 2018.
Out of view of its ultimate target, the sun,
but not its namesake. (woman screams)
There we go. (upbeat music)
(audience member) Wow!
It was the culmination of six decades
of scientific dreams and hard work,
(crew applauds)
dating back to when Parker first published
his solar theories in 1958.
The Parker Solar Probe really is a historic mission.
It was first dreamed of in 1958
and it's remained the highest priority mission
throughout that period.
The reason it hasn't flown is just because
it's taken a while for technology to catch up
with the dreams that we had for this amazing mission.
In particular,
advances in materials engineering
which led to the development of the critically important,
seven and a half foot wide, four and a half inch thick,
carbon composite heat shield.
It's got a white reflective surface and weighs 160 pounds.
You're going into an environment
that's completely unforgiving.
The temperatures that we're seeing
on the spacecraft are not being seen
by any other spacecraft ever before.
(flare booms)
The Parker Solar Probe is a technological marvel.
The thermal protection system, the heat shield,
will be glowing cherry red.
When we're at closest approach,
the front surface of the heat shield will be
at about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
The back surface of the heat shield will be
about 600 degrees Fahrenheit,
but then the spacecraft bus is basically sitting
at 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, the shield is actually
really keeping everything very cool.
Including the full complement of equipment
and sensors aboard the spacecraft,
allowing the four primary instruments
to complete their scientific tasks,
taking measurements of the sun's electric
and magnetic fields,
collecting data about the origins
of the sun's high-energy particles,
the solar wind density and acceleration,
as well as taking images of the solar environment
by looking around the heat shield.
We sort of peek over the edge of it
and we use it as a shield to block out the sun itself
and that allows us to see this very faint glow coming
from the corona that's only observed
during an eclipse, for example.
We're creating an artificial eclipse.
Well, eclipses are great, but from the data point of view,
I like my instruments better.
(dramatic music)
The initial download of data
from the first two perihelions was completed May 9th, 2019.
22 gigabytes,
50% more information than the team anticipated,
including this image of the solar wind moving left to right.
That's the Milky Way moving offscreen
and the bright spot coming into view is Mercury.
(mysterious music)
Due to all its immediate success,
for the third solar pass the research team decided
to activate the probe's suite of scientific equipment
over a stretch nearly twice the distance
they operated during the first two opportunities,
an increase of 14 observation days.
Of course, even before its first encounter with the sun,
the pioneering probe began breaking records,
surpassing 153,454 miles per hour,
quickly making it the fastest human made object
relative to the sun.
It's speed of at the third perihelion was similar
to what it was during the first two, 213,200 miles per hour,
yet another record.
But still, only half of the 432,000 miles per hour expected
at the 24th and the last close-range solar pass.
But before that time comes, the Parker Solar Probe will
undoubtedly make major contributions
to our knowledge of the sun.
Perhaps solving the questions it was sent to investigate,
or maybe posing new ones.
Either way, the man who inspired the mission thinks
it will all be worth it.
I have always said on a mission like this
into new territory,
you're gonna be in for some surprises.
Maybe not big ones, maybe only little ones,
but you're gonna find
that your point of view will have to change
to conform with the data
and that's the fun part. (wondrous music)