Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

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)