90 million miles from Earth
faster than anything ever made
a spacecraft plunges into our sun.
This tiny craft no bigger than a car
faces a star
a million times the size of our planet.
Once deemed mission impossible
the probe needs astonishing new technology to survive.
Its mission
to solve the mysteries of our awesome star.
It's the first time we've ever gone
this close to the sun. It's been an engineering feat
to actually get there and not melt.
New data will help warn of the dangers
of electromagnetic explosions from the sun.
Solar storms can cause blackouts over large parts of the world.
Nothing from Earth has ever been this close
to our star before.
It is unchartered territory
and Parker Solar Probe is blazing her way through there.
It's a mission 60 years in the planning.
Now, finally, we are touching the sun.
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA are going where no mission has gone before.
They're heading to the sun.
The rocket has been at the launch pad
awaiting the arrival of Parker Solar Probe.
She's buttoned up, looking beautiful, ready to go.
In charge of the science for the $1.5 billion mission
is project scientist, Nicky Fox.
The mission is inspiring.
It is a voyage of discovery.
We're going to the last region of the solar system
really to be explored by a spacecraft.
It's like discovering a new continent.
We've sent spacecraft
to all of the major regions of our solar system.
It's one small step for man
one giant leap for mankind.
But we've never gone
into the centre of the solar system.
It is unchartered territory.
So there is a lot of pressure to be perfect
for that 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
lift off moment.
The Delta IV Heavy America's largest rocket
launches 50,000 pound spy satellites
into orbit around the Earth.
The tiny Parker Solar Probe
weighs a mere 1,500 pounds.
But it needs the might of this powerful launch
to gain the speed necessary
to travel the 90 million miles to its target
our sun.
The sun sustains all life on Earth.
The whole solar system
created by its massive presence.
You could line up 109 Earths
across the face of the sun
and pack a million and more Earths
inside it.
So large it would take a jet plane
nearly six months to circumnavigate the sun.
At its heart, a giant nuclear fusion reactor
crushing atoms together
and generating
27 million degree temperatures.
Around that
a vast ball of super-heated plasma
an electrically charged cloud
created when atoms are torn apart by heat and pressure
beyond our understanding.
This awesome power of the sun
constantly changes
which is why it's studied 24/7
here at NASA's Goddard Space Weather Research Centre.
Real images of the sun like these
are filmed by NASA's solar observatories
in orbit around the Earth.
When you step outside of the atmosphere
with a camera in space
we find the sun is so much more interesting.
It's this explosive environment
that is seething with energy
magnetic and electric fields are moving around.
It's ever changing.
This is what's so amazing, is to see how incredibly dynamic
the sun is.
Dynamic and racked with gigantic explosions
hurling radiation and particles towards the Earth.
You see lots of little flashes.
These little things are many times
the size of the United States for example.
They're huge and there are massive amounts
of energy being released. It's mind boggling.
All that dynamic energy can occasionally
throw out these huge solar storms
these blasts of material
that can slam into the Earth
they shake the Earth's magnetic field.
So this is one of the reasons
why we focus so much on what's happening on the sun.
On Earth, we're blissfully unaware
of these massive explosions
many millions of miles away in space.
Few people alive today
have ever felt the impact of a major eruption on the sun.
But 159 years ago
the biggest sun explosion we have ever known
causes chaos on Earth.
September 1, 1859.
English astronomer, Richard Carrington
draws images of sun spots
projected through a telescope at his home
in the English village of Redhill.
All around the world back then
people were watching the surface of the sun.
And every day Carrington would sit down
in his observatory, which was a telescope
he had in his house.
And he would look at the sun and project the sun down
and he'd make a sketch of this active region.
By cosmic coincidence, as he was sitting there
making a sketch one day
one of the largest solar flares on record occurred.
Carrington was actually able to see
bright pricks of light appear
on his sketch pad
because the flare was so intense
in visible light, it actually caused
bright points to appear on the solar surface.
Carrington's drawing
records the largest flare ever known
from that day to this.
It's the first indication for scientists
that storms on the sun
can devastate our technology on Earth.
What's amazing is then what follows.
About 18 hours later all hell breaks loose on Earth.
Telegraph wires start sparking and catching on fire
compasses start wriggling around.
It was enormous.
It was so big, it made what we call
a geomagnetic storm which is one of these storms
where it deforms Earth's magnetic field
and puts all of this energy into the radiation belt.
The Aurora Borealis, the northern lights are seen
all the way down to Cuba.
Places of the world
where people had never seen aurora before.
Places like Australia, Great Britain
and even Florida could have seen the aurora.
The geomagnetic storm
that spreads chaos across the globe
is now known by scientists as the Carrington event.
In 1859
the newly invented telegraph machine
is the only method of long distance communication.
Electromagnetic particles bombarding Earth
from the huge solar flare
have serious consequences
wrecking communications.
So in 1859, the loss of the telegraph system
for four days, that doesn't seem that significant
when we thing about that today.
But if you imagine the loss of all electronic communication
all power grids
for days, weeks, months
it is a huge, huge impact on life and society.
Some estimates say that if were to happen today
and we didn't have enough advance warning
to power down our power grids
you could lose all the transformers
on the East and West coast of the United States.
It could take years, maybe even decades
to restore power to the coasts.
Imagine losing the internet now.
National panic would ensue.
You lose GPS potentially.
A lot of us depend on GPS for things like logistics.
Most major cities in the world
only have enough food for about 12 hours
so if you don't have a logistics network operating
you can't supply all the people in the city.
When a hurricane strikes
there's an earthquake, what do we do?
People leave the city
they take refuge in another city nearby.
You don't necessarily have that option
if we have a Earth level Carrington event.
If you lose the entire seaboard
and there's nowhere to go to recover.
No one knows when a Carrington level event
will happen again.
It could happen right now.
So imagine now if we had one of those major events.
It would be pretty bad so we need to mitigate
the effects of this.
Mitigating the effects requires earlier warnings
of solar bombardments.
And for that, we need scientific data
we can only get by going to the sun
so that's what we're doing.
10, 9, 8
7, 6, 5
4, 3, 2, 1
August 12, 2018.
In the early hours of the morning
Parker Solar Probe is ready for lift off.
There's a tremendous amount of excitement in the team
waiting for this launch.
We are so connected with this spacecraft.
We've watched her grow up
in front of us for many years.
To us, she is a person
she's a part of the team.
She is the one that's going on the voyage
and going to make these amazing discoveries.
Status check to pursue with terminal count.
Go. - Hydraulics. - Go.
Vox. - Go.
The launch is probably
the most dangerous part of the mission.
You're sitting on top
of a tremendous set of tanks of explosives.
It's a controlled explosion.
If you lose control in the slightest way
that's it. It's all over. - 9
8, 7, 6
5, 4, 3
2, 1, 0.
Lift off, of the mighty Delta IV Heavy Rocket
with NASA's Parker Solar Probe.
A daring mission to shed light on the mysteries
of our closest star, the sun.
It was just like she was ready to go
and so I think for the first time in months
I was actually speechless
watching that beautiful sight of her
lighting up the sky. - Tower clear.
Now 10 seconds into flight.
Even though we're a few miles away from the rocket
the noise from the launch is so intense
you can feel it rattling in your chest.
Those two side boosters are going at full throttle.
As they start to burn out they drop away
and the centre one
takes over as the main lift body.
92 miles high above the Caribbean
the nose cone splits apart.
Scores of scientists and engineers
in four different mission control rooms
around the country follow every second
of the Parker Probe's progress.
And 30 minutes later
the second stage separates.
The Parker Probe
is finally leaving the Earth.
There are so many different feelings
kind of jumbled up in my head at the same time.
The pride, the sheer spectacle
but also separation anxiety.
That's my baby and she's left the planet.
I hope she writes every day
and tells us all the wonderful data
she's taking.
The Parker Probe's full mission
will last seven years.
One of the most complex navigational challenges
ever undertaken in space.
24 orbits, each one taking the probe
closer and closer to the corona of our star.
But this mapped out route
has a crucial first step.
A fly-by of Venus
using the planet's gravity for a handbrake turn
to aim Parker in towards the sun.
There's little room for error.
To aim at Venus
the probe must fire its last engine
precisely on time.
That's when we get most of the speed
and if we miss Venus
it will destroy the entire mission.
We won't get the orbit that we want.
Except Venus is a moving target.
And so, we can't aim it where Venus is
we have to aim it where Venus is going to be in weeks
when we finally get there.
So it's sort of like a sniper.
If you had a sniper aiming at a target
that was a thousand yards away
he'd have to aim very precisely to hit that target.
But Venus is a moving target
and that comes with its own set of problems.
A bullet travels at about 2,000 feet per second.
So it takes almost two seconds
to travel that thousand yards.
The sniper would need to aim at the exact point
where the target will be two seconds into the future.
Even for a mere thousand yards
the calculations need to be precise.
Over 32 million miles
and at 50 times the speed of a bullet
the team at NASA have an even more difficult task
on their hands.
To aim in the right direction
the probe has one last engine
on the third stage of the rocket
and it should be firing right now.
The third stage is a solid rocket motor
that fires once and then it's done.
And so we've got to get it right.
We've only got one opportunity.
Mission Control follows every moment of the flight
by receiving radio signals from the probe
called telemetry signals.
But now, there's a problem.
Seeing some telemetry drop outs from the third stage.
Should have expected to see spacecraft separation
within the last minute.
Telemetry from the spacecraft
its only means of communicating with Mission Control
has failed.
There's nothing they can do, but wait.
No one is sure if NASA's Parker Solar Probe
is in trouble or not
because it's no longer talking to Mission Control.
Seeing some telemetry drop outs from the third stage.
Telemetry, the readings its instruments
should be transmitting to Earth
are failing to reach Mission Control.
Frustration, for scientists and engineers
desperate to confirm
that the final rocket burn has happened.
Should have expected to see spacecraft separation
within the last minute. Difficult to make calls.
All those on the ground can see
is a NASA live television feed
a pre-prepared animation
of what should be happening in space.
And with no confirmation
this NASA picture could be just an expensive cartoon.
And if something's wrong
there's no way of fixing it.
This is not the Hubble space telescope.
Whatever happens after launch, that's it.
If it's a serious error, the mission will fail.
But moments later..
And we've been informed that the third stage
is providing data to a ground station.
Telemetry is reacquired.
The Parker Probe's signal is being picked up
by a receiving station
confirming that last final burn.
We've had confirmation of spacecraft separation.
With the final engine separated
Parker Probe is now safely on route
to Venus.
This voyage to the sun was top of the wish list
of space exploration drawn up
when NASA was created in the 1950s.
Other missions to Mars
Saturn, even Pluto have been successful.
Only the sun remains so unexplored.
Their final frontier.
The vital importance of visiting the sun
is highlighted back then
by young scientist, Dr. Eugene Parker.
He discovers the solar wind.
Streams of electrically charged nuclear particles
blasting out from the sun in all directions.
Parker's mathematical theory
shows that the wind envelops the Earth.
A potentially fatal danger to astronauts
outside of our planet's protective shield.
Back in the '50s, Parker's ideas
are so revolutionary, many disbelieve him.
I remember how upset some people were.
They insisted I made a mathematical error
and I would reply, well, here you are.
Here is five lines of algebra
and you say I made a mistake? Show me.
The danger Parker discovered grows even greater
when solar flares or other eruptions
pump up the blast of deadly radiation.
Astronauts landing on the moon were at risk
but they were exposed for just a few days.
Now manned missions to Mars
are high on NASA's agenda.
Even inside their spaceships
future Mars mariners run the risk
of radiation poisoning.
Minus 15.
NASA realizes we must go to the sun.
But for 50 years
they just can't do it.
At first, the findings were, it's impossible.
It can't be done. We just don't have the technology
with the melt we couldn't get there.
Finally, in the mid-2000s
all this technology came together
sand we figured out that we could actually
build a solar probe and fly it.
It's not surprising that reaching the sun
is for so long considered mission impossible.
We view our star
with awe and reverence.
To us, it's a solid presence in our sky
but in reality, there is no solid surface.
Just plasma and countless beams of light
bursting out from its nuclear core.
Above is the sun's atmosphere, the corona.
A shimmering cloud only seen as a ring around the sun
when there's a total eclipse.
Or in images like these
taken by NASAs specialised telescopes.
Within that corona is a scientific mystery
which Parker Probe may help to explain.
The corona's outer edges
furthest from the heat of the nuclear core
are hotter than the surface of the sun
which weirdly defies the known laws of physics.
The visible surface that we're used to
that yellow ball is about
6,000-7,000 degrees centigrade.
But when you move away from the surface of the sun
into the outer atmosphere, what we call the corona
it's actually millions of degrees.
It's crazy.
You could think about
if I step away from a camp fire, it gets colder as I walk away
but the sun doesn't do that.
Instead when your campfire is the sun
step away from the heat
and you get hotter than ever before.
It is to solve that mystery
and discover how the furnace heat of the sun
powers dangerous rays towards us
that the Parker Probe must now reach its target.
The spacecraft is packed with a vast array
of scientific instruments.
The only question now
can the Parker Probe deliver them
safely to where they are needed?
Parker Solar Probe is blasting towards Venus
at an astonishing 68,000 miles an hour.
Drive that fast in the USA
and coast to coast America is easy.
New York to L.A. in around two and a half minutes.
And as the speed picks up
they need to make sure their instruments are working.
If something goes wrong
it probably went wrong during launch
you know, something shorted
something shifted, something broke.
Unlike your iPhone or your computer
if there is a problem you cannot, you know, walk on the street
and get it fixed.
One by one the systems switch on
and send back data.
The process takes weeks.
There's a lot to check.
Parker Solar Probe is about the size of a car
but there are a tremendous number of components
jammed into that.
Antenna captured data about magnetic fields.
The only camera on board photographs the solar wind
rushing by.
Analysers capture high speed particles
as they accelerate into space.
But only one instrument has the power
to withstand the full fury of the sun.
The bravest little instrument on the space craft
the solar probe cup, it is out
it's looking in the full solar environment
and it is measuring
what is coming literally smashing
into the spacecraft from the sun.
Particles from the sun pour into the solar cup
to be funnelled into detectors
measuring their speed and temperature.
The cup is the creation
of solar scientist, Justin Kasper.
The sun's actually going to be
400-500 times brighter
at closest approach than it is at Earth.
So any exposed surfaces
like the front of the solar probe cup
are going to get up to temperatures of maybe
1,500, 1,600 degrees Celsius.
And unfortunately, I want the solar wind
to flow into the instrument
so I don't get to put a cover over it
to protect the hardware, right?
I have to have it wide open and staring at the sun.
Building robotic instruments for space exploration
has been his life's work.
Got it, hey! All right.
3, 2, 1. We have ignition.
I was a small child as a space shuttle program
was getting off the ground.
We have ignition of the solid rocket boosters..
In the fourth grade, I and pretty much
every other student in the United States
we assembled in our cafeterias
to watch the live broadcast.
Sorry, just a sec.
T-15 seconds.
Well, as you can see I..
This really impacted me. - T-10.
We're all going to watch Challenger take off.
And lift off.
Lift off of the 25th space shuttle mission
and it is clear of the tower.
This was the first time a non-astronaut
actually a teacher was going to fly up into space.
And as you may know about 60 seconds into the launch.
Disaster.
60 seconds, velocity 2900 feet per second.
And we're all sitting there in this cafeteria
you know just.. What's going on?
And that really changed me
that one moment.
Kasper resolves to explore space
but in a way that minimises the risk to human life.
Obviously, a major malfunction.
I was just so struck at how willing these people
were to take this risk to get into space.
I wanted us to continue that
but I felt like for some of the riskier things we do
we should do this with robots.
So I became deeply interested
and passionate in robotic space exploration.
I wanted to be part of that.
Kasper works on his solar cup design
for more than 10 years.
He thinks that alloys
of highly heat resistant metals such as titanium
zirconium, molybdenum and tungsten
might resist the heat of the sun.
But Kasper's got nowhere with enough sunlight
to test that theory.
I was lamenting to a French colleague of mine
that I had this, what I thought was a great idea
for an instrument
but I didn't feel like I could really convince NASA
it would work unless I hit it with all the sunlight.
How am I going to do that?
The answer to Dr. Kasper's question
was hiding in rural France.
In the Pyrenees mountain range, there's a scientific facility
that's exactly what he needs.
The thousands of mirrors of the solar furnace
reflect and direct the sun's heat and light
to one parabolic mirror
the height of a 13 story building
and onto one single
point of focus.
The lab's deputy director
Marianne Balat-Pichelin tests raw materials
in the suns focused heat.
All the light is concentrated
and you will see the focus by using some water.
In order to see that the solar flex is very high
we will burn immediately the wood.
So I put at the focus
and immediately, you can see it burns.
At the focus we can go
up to 3,500 Celsius.
That's three times as hot as most volcanic lava.
More than hot enough to melt a steel bar.
Tests here convince NASA that Kasper's solar cup
made with heat resistant tungsten
will survive the heat of the sun.
Amazingly, our colleagues in France
helped us do all that testing
and that's how we were able to go
from a simple concept
to the solar probe cup.
In Mission Control
early checks of the cup
and other instruments on board
show that everything has survived the launch.
It's a big step towards mission success
but now there's another hurdle looming.
As we fly past the planet, Venus
we will be eclipsed from the spacecraft
so there will be a short period of time
where we can't hear from the spacecraft
and we just have to wait for her
to pop out from the other side of Venus.
Every time you can't hear from it
I mean, it's like a parent who's worried about their kid
you know, who hasn't called.
You would prefer to be in contact all the time.
You can't, especially with this mission
which is one of the places
where it's just impossible to get radio communications.
The probe is reaching Venus.
It will be out of radio contact.
When it reappears
the entire mission depends on one thing.
It must hit
its precise trajectory to the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe
has been out of contact behind Venus.
As it re-emerges, it beams back data
showing its navigation is perfect.
It's on course for the sun.
This far from Earth, Mission Control has no way
of effecting its destiny.
At some point when you get close to the sun
you can no longer talk to the spacecraft.
The sun is a wide band radio source
which means it broadcasts very loudly on all frequencies
and will drown out the spacecraft.
The spacecraft's on its own.
From now on in, the solar winds get stronger
and the danger increases.
She really has to look after herself on orbit.
It takes light about eight minutes
to travel from the sun to the Earth
and so you can't joystick this mission.
If the spacecraft has a problem
she has to be able to fix that problem herself.
But on Earth, these hazards are being closely monitored
just like meteorologists who warn us
of storms and hurricanes
NASAs scientists forecast the space weather
that the sun generates throughout the solar system.
Their forecasts reveal what dangers
the sun is sending Parker's way.
We actually do the space weather forecasting
primarily because we want to protect
NASA robotic missions.
Space weather can cause different damages
to instrumentation. It can actually fry them up
and cause them to pretty much be trash.
Forecast teams like this
not only warn missions like Parker
the dangers from the sun
but also warn astronauts
like those on the international space station.
This is radiation, right?
It can harm the astronaut/the person
if it's not blocked in some way.
It has to have some kind of protection.
Here on Earth we are all protected
because we have the magnetic field of the Earth.
Outside in space, that doesn't happen.
Having a mission that is going to the solar corona
is going to help us understand
this kind of activity in a better way.
It's going to give us the data that we need
to actually plug it in into the models
that we use for predictions
so we can do better forecasting.
Nearing the heat of a star
Parker's survival depends now on one thing.
Its five-inch thick heat shield.
The very first feature that jumps out at you
is our heat shield.
It is very critical for us.
It is the thing that provides the shade
and keeps the main body of the spacecraft cool.
So it's highly important.
This all important heat shield is the product of 10 years work
by engineer, Betsy Congdon.
Betsy is an absolute rock star
and for over a decade, she has devoted her entire life
to making sure that our heat shield works.
She lovingly calls it her eight foot frisbee.
At this approach, we're starting to get hot
and so the heat shield has to remain
between the spacecraft and the shield at all times
so that the shield is protecting the spacecraft from the sun.
It's basically a sun umbrella.
In true engineering terms
the heat shield is surprisingly simple.
Behind the shield's reflective ceramic coating
are layers of an engineered carbon composite.
A shield so effective
it keeps the probe's all-important instruments
at their normal working temperature.
Our heat shields will experience temperatures
of up to 1,400 degrees Celsius.
It provides such an effective shade
that the main body of the spacecraft itself
is at about 30 degrees centigrade
which is a lovely summer's day.
With no guidance from Earth
tiny sensors behind the heat shield
ensure that it constantly adjusts
to hide the craft from the searing heat.
Sunlight hitting any sensor
triggers an immediate response.
The spacecraft knows
Oh, I might be skewing a little bit the wrong way
and so it actually will right itself
without any human in the loop.
So, autonomous system which basically is..
It's just working without us having to do anything.
It knows what it needs to do
and it rights itself.
Righting itself is something
that the probe is going to have to do
for the next seven years
as it swoops around the sun time after time.
And this vital system is about to have
its first real live test.
The temperature is rising.
The probe is reaching the sun.
The Parker Solar Probe
has travelled a roundabout route to the sun.
From its launch in Florida
it has journeyed millions of miles to Venus
and millions of miles more
to brush the atmosphere of a star.
The hope now is that data
gathered by its different suites of instruments
packed onto and into
every nook and cranny of the tiny spacecraft
will finally help solve
the greatest mysteries of the sun.
Flying through the plasma clouds of the sun's corona
will let us better forecast
the potentially dangerous space weather
that can bring chaos to our modern society.
And in the future
what we learn today about our sun
will guide our continuing search
for life elsewhere in the universe.
Understanding the habitability of planets
as we're seeing more and more planets
in the universe is really important.
We know that we have life on Earth because of the sun.
We're in what's called the habitable zone.
We're far enough away from the sun
that we're not too hot
near enough that there's liquid water here.
The sun is our star.
It gives us light, it gives us heat.
We wouldn't be here without our star.
But it is just an average star.
The same as many other stars in many other solar systems
and so by studying our sun
it actually gives us insights into how stars
all over the galaxy will actually work.
November first, 2018
Parker Solar Probe
hits 179,000 miles an hour.
It is now the fastest object
ever made by humankind.
It's getting into the region where the solar wind
is still being accelerated and where the corona
is still being heated.
That's what will mean by touch the sun.
Being this close to a star
is like driving your car
into the heart of a nuclear reactor.
Nothing made by man
has ever braved such dangers before.
It's incredibly hot.
The energetic particles are going to be very extreme.
Incredibly hostile place.
The heat is tremendous.
The temperatures on the front face
of our carbon heat shield
are up over a thousand degrees.
All of our instruments hide in the shadows
they're still working, the science, the technology
that's gone into getting us there
has been tremendous.
On Earth, we think of light
as pure weightless illumination.
This close to the sun
light hits you like a hammer blow.
The sheer pressure of the photons of light
its individual packets of energy
pushes the probe with a physical force.
Everything that controls our solar system
is really from the sun
energetic particles, the light, the solar wind
it all comes from the sun.
To actually get to touch it is really amazing.
This is the beginning of rewriting
the science text books.
We have successfully designed a space craft
that can survive plunging into the sun's atmosphere
and that's an incredible accomplishment.
This is the moment we've been working for
hard all these years.
Many, many hours. Many, many grey hair.
I had no grey hair when I started this mission.
It's not the end of the mission
but on November 5, 2018
at 10:27 pm Eastern Standard Time
the Parker Probe reaches its first destination.
A milestone
in the human exploration of space.
This is perihelium.
The closest humankind
has ever been to a star.
To be flying through the corona
for the very first time is just incredible.
It is unchartered territory
and Parker Solar Probe is blazing her way through that.