All language subtitles for Mission.to.the.Sun.2018.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Ninety 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.

DR. NICHOLEEN VIALL: 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.

NARRATOR:
New data will help warn of the dangers

of electromagnetic
explosions from the sun.

DR. ERIC CHRISTIAN:
Solar storms can cause blackouts

over large parts of the world.

(sparking, fizzling)

NARRATOR:
Nothing from Earth has ever been

this close to our star before.

DR. NICKY FOX:
It is uncharted territory,

and Parker Solar Probe is
blazing her way through there.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It's a mission 60 years in the planning.

Now, finally,
we are touching the sun.

(waves lapping)

(birds chirping)

-(beeping)
-(fishing reel clicking)

Cape Canaveral, Florida.

♪ ♪

NASA are going where
no mission has gone before.

They're heading to the sun.

(whirring)

FOX: The rocket has been
at the launch pad awaiting

the arrival of Parker Solar Probe.

She's buttoned up,
looking beautiful, ready to go.

NARRATOR:
In charge of the science for

the 1.5 billion-dollar mission

is project scientist Nicky Fox.

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.

(birds chirping)

It's like discovering a new continent.

(explosion)

♪ ♪

We've sent spacecraft

to all of the major regions
of our solar system.

NEIL ARMSTRONG (on radio):
That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

(soil crunching)

FOX:
But we've never gone into

the center of the solar system.

(rumbling)

It is uncharted territory.

(rumbling, swirling)

So there is a lot of pressure

to be perfect for that

five, four, three, two, one,
liftoff moment.

NARRATOR: 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.

(rumbling, bursting)

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.

(rumbling)

At its heart, a giant
nuclear fusion reactor,

crushing atoms together

and generating
27 million degree temperatures.

(crackling)

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 Center.

(rumbling)

Real images of the sun, like these,

are filmed by NASA's solar observatories

in orbit around the Earth.

♪ ♪

(crackling, rumbling)

DR. ALEX YOUNG: When you step outside
of the atmosphere with a camera in space,

we find the sun is so
much more interesting.

(explosion)

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.

NARRATOR: Dynamic and racked
with gigantic explosions,

hurling radiation and particles
towards the Earth.

(explosion)

YOUNG:
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.
-(thundering)

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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
On Earth, we're blissfully unaware

of these massive explosions

many millions of miles away in space.

-(waves washing ashore)
-(birds cawing)

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.

(door opening)

♪ ♪

September the 1st, 1859.

English astronomer Richard Carrington

draws images of sun spots

projected through
a telescope at his home

in the English village of Redhill.

DR. JUSTIN KASPER:
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.

(thundering)

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.

NARRATOR:
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.

KASPER:
What's amazing is then what follows.

About 18 hours later,
all hell breaks loose on Earth.

(birds chirping)

Telegraph lines start
sparking and catching on fire,

compasses start wiggling around.

VIALL:
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.

KASPER:
The aurora borealis, the northern lights,

are seen all the way down to Cuba.

VIALL: Places of the world where people
had never seen aurora before.

Places like Australia, Great Britain,

and even Florida
could have seen the aurora.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
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.

(sparking, zapping)

FOX: So in 1859, the loss of
the telegraph system for four days,

that doesn't seem that significant
when we think 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.

♪ ♪

KASPER: Some estimates say that if it
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 coasts of the United States.

It could take years,
maybe even decades,

to restore power to the coasts.

FOX:
Imagine losing the internet now.

National panic would ensue.

KASPER:
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,
or if 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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: No one knows when a
Carrington-level event will happen again.

(distorted):
It could happen right now...

(siren)

(static)

VIALL: 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.

(birds cawing)

NARRATOR:
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.

(rumbling)

MAN:
10, nine, eight,

seven, six, five

-four, three, two, one.
-(rumbling)

(roaring)

(indistinct chatter)

NARRATOR:
August 12th, 2018.

♪ ♪

In the early hours of the morning,

Parker Solar Probe is ready for liftoff.

FOX:
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's 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.

MAN 1 (on radio): Status check
to pursue with terminal count.

-First stage systems. Propulsion.
-MAN 2 (on radio): Go.

-MAN 1: Hydraulics.
-MAN 3 (on radio): Go.

-MAN 1: Vox.
-MAN 4 (on radio): Go.

MAN 1:
LH2...

CHRISTIAN:
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.

MAN (on radio):
Nine, eight, seven

-six, five...
-(rumbling)

four, three, two,

one, zero.

Liftoff 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.

♪ ♪

FOX:
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.

MAN (on radio):
Tower clear.

Now 10 seconds into flight.

(roaring)

KASPER: 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.

-(beeping)
-(roaring)

FOX: Those two side boosters
are going at full throttle.

As they start to burn out,

they drop away, and the center one

takes over as the main lift body.

(rumbling)

NARRATOR:
Ninety-two 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.

♪ ♪

FOX: 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.

NARRATOR: The Parker Probe's
full mission will last seven years.

One of the most complex
navigational challenges

ever undertaken in space.

Twenty-four 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 flyby 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.

CHRISTIAN:
That's when we get most of the speed.

And if we miss Venus,
it'll 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 gonna 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 1,000 yards away,
he'd have to aim

very precisely to hit that target.

(gunshot)

(bullet thuds)

(click)

NARRATOR:
But Venus is a moving target,

and that comes with
its own set of problems.

(birds chirping)

CHRISTIAN: A bullet travels
at about 2,000 feet per second.

-(gunshot)
-(air rushing)

So, it takes almost two seconds
to travel that 1,000 yards.

NARRATOR:
The sniper would need to aim

at the exact point
where the target will be

two seconds into the future.

Even for a mere 1,000 yards,

the calculations need to be precise.

♪ ♪

-(gunshot)
-(air rushing)

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.

(roaring)

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.

CHRISTIAN:
The third stage is a solid rocket motor

that fires once and then it's done.

And so we've gotta get it right.
We've only got one opportunity.

NARRATOR: Mission Control
follows every moment of the flight

by receiving radio
signals from the probe,

called telemetry signals.

But now, there's a problem.

MAN (on radio): Seeing some telemetry
dropouts from the third stage.

Should've expected to see spacecraft
separation within the last minute.

NARRATOR:
Telemetry from the spacecraft,

its only means of communicating

with Mission Control, has failed.

There's nothing they can do, but wait.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: No one is sure
if NASA's Parker Solar Probe

is in trouble or not

because it's no longer
talking to Mission Control.

MAN (on radio): Seeing some
telemetry dropouts from the third stage.

NARRATOR:
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.

MAN (on radio):
Should've expected to see spacecraft

separation within the last minute.
Difficult to make calls.

NARRATOR:
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.

VIALL:
This is not the Hubble space telescope.

Whatever happens after launch, that's it.

NARRATOR: If it's a serious error,
the mission will fail.

But moments later...

MAN (on radio): And we've been
informed that the third stage

is providing data to a ground station.

NARRATOR:
Telemetry is reacquired.

The Parker Probe's
signal is being picked up

by a receiving station,

confirming that last, final burn.

MAN (on radio): We have had
confirmation of spacecraft separation.

(applause)

NARRATOR:
With the final engine separated,

Parker Probe is now safely
on route to Venus.

♪ ♪

(whooshing by)

This voyage to the sun
was top of the wish list

of space exploration
drawn up when NASA

was created in the 1950s.

MAN (over radio):
T-minus 10, nine...

NARRATOR:
Other missions to Mars, Saturn,

even Pluto have been successful.

Only the sun remains so unexplored.

Their final frontier.

(roaring)

The vital importance of visiting the sun
is highlighted back then

by a 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.

(radio chatter, static)

NARRATOR:
Back in the '50s,

Parker's ideas are so revolutionary,

many disbelieve him.

DR. EUGENE PARKER:
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.

You say I made a mistake? Show me.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
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.

NEIL ARMSTRONG:
The surface appears to be...

NARRATOR:
Now manned missions to Mars

are high on NASA's agenda.

Even inside their spaceships,
future Mars mariners

run the risk of radiation poisoning.

MAN (on radio):
Minus 15.

NARRATOR:
NASA realizes we must go to the sun.

(roaring)

But for 50 years,
they just can't do it.

KASPER: At first,
the findings were it's impossible.

Can't be done.
We just don't have the technology.

We'd melt, we couldn't get there.

Finally, in the mid-2000s,

all this technology came
together and we figured out

that we could actually build
a solar probe and fly it.

♪ ♪

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR: It's not surprising
that reaching the sun is, for so long,

considered mission impossible.

We view our star
with awe and reverence.

(crowd chatter)

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,

the shimmering cloud only seen as a ring

around the sun when
there's a total eclipse.

Or in images like these,

taken by NASA's
specialized 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 the surface of the sun,

which weirdly defies
the known laws of physics.

(rumbling)

♪ ♪

YOUNG: The visible surface that
we're used to, that yellow ball,

is about...

six, 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.

(fire crackling)

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.

NARRATOR:
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.

(rumbling)

The spacecraft is packed

with a vast array of
scientific instruments.

The only question now,

can the Parker Probe them,
safely, to where they are needed?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Parker Solar Probe is blasting

towards Venus at an astonishing
68,000 miles an hour.

(rumbling)

Drive that fast in the USA,
and coast to coast America is easy.

New York to LA in around
two and a half minutes.

(rocket roar)

And as the speed picks up,
they need to make sure

their instruments are working.

KASPER: If something goes wrong,
it probably went wrong during launch.

Something shorted,
something shifted, something broke.

(rocket roar)

BETSY CONGDON:
Unlike your iPhone or your computer,

if there is a problem,
you cannot, you know,

walk down the street and get it fixed.

NARRATOR: One by one,
the systems switch on

and send back data.

The process takes weeks.
There's a lot to check.

♪ ♪

CHRISTIAN: Parker Solar Probe
is about the size of a car,

but there are a tremendous
number of components

jammed into that.

NARRATOR: Antenna capture
data about magnetic fields.

The only camera on board
photographs the solar wind rushing by.

Analyzers capture high-speed particles
as they accelerate into space.

But, only one instrument has the power

to withstand the full fury of the sun.

FOX: 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.

NARRATOR: Particles from
the sun pour into the solar cup

to be funneled into detectors measuring
their speed and temperature.

The cup is the creation of
solar scientist Justin Kasper.

(exploding)

KASPER: The sun's actually
gonna be 400 to 500 times brighter

at closest approach than it is at Earth.

So any exposed surfaces,

like the front of the solar probe cup,

are gonna get up to temperatures of maybe
1500, 1600 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.

(fans whirring)

NARRATOR:
Building robotic instruments

for space exploration
has been his life's work.

KASPER:
Got it, hey! Alright. (chuckle)

♪ ♪

MAN (on radio):
Three, two, one.

We have ignition.

KASPER:
I was a small child

as the space shuttle program
was getting off the ground.

MAN (on radio): We have ignition
of the solid rocket boosters,

and liftoff.

KASPER:
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.

MAN (on radio):
T-minus 15 seconds.

(chuckling)

Well, as you can see,
this really impacted me.

MAN (on radio):
T-minus 10.

KASPER: We're all gonna
watch Challenger take off.

MAN (on radio):
And liftoff.

Liftoff of the 25th
space shuttle mission,

and it is clear of the tower.

KASPER:
This was the first time a non-astronaut,

actually a teacher,
was gonna fly up into space.

(inaudible)

And as you may know,
about 60 seconds into the launch,

disaster.

(exploding)

MAN (over radio): 15 seconds,
velocity 2900 feet per second...

KASPER: And we're all
sitting there in this cafeteria,

you know, just... what's going on?

♪ ♪

And...

that really changed me,
that one moment.

NARRATOR:
Kasper resolves to explore space,

but in a way that minimizes
the risk to human life.

MAN (on radio):
Obviously, a major malfunction.

KASPER:
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.

NARRATOR:
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.

KASPER: 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 this sunlight.

How am I gonna do that?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The answer to Dr. Kasper's question

was hiding in rural France.

(birds chirping)

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.

(crackling)

The lab's deputy director,
Marianne Belat-Pichelin,

tests raw materials in
the sun's focused heat.

(machinery whirring)

DR. MARIANNE BALAT-PICHELIN:
All the light is concentrated

and you will see the focus
by using some water.

(spraying)

In order to see that
the solar flux 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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: That's three times
as hot as most volcanic lava.

More than hot enough
to melt a steel bar.

(sizzling)

Tests here convince NASA
that Kasper's solar cup

made with heat-resistant tungsten
will survive the heat of the sun.

KASPER:
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.

NARRATOR: 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.

FOX:
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.

♪ ♪

CHRISTIAN:
Every time you can't hear from it,

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 flying

to places where it's just impossible
to get radio communications.

NARRATOR:
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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
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 affecting its destiny.

ANDY DRIESMAN: 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.

(beeping)

The spacecraft's on its own.

NARRATOR: From now on in,
the solar winds get stronger,

and the danger increases.

FOX: 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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: But on Earth,
these hazards are being closely monitored.

Just like meteorologists who warn us
of storms and hurricanes,

NASA 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.

DR. YARI COLLADA-VEGA: We actually
do the space weather forecasting

primarily because we wanna
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.

NARRATOR:
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.

(radio chatter)

(whooshing)

COLLADA-VEGA:
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 gonna help us understand

this kind of activity in a better way.

It's gonna 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.

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR:
Nearing the heat of a star,

Parker's survival depends
now on one thing.

Its five-inch-thick heat shield.

FOX: 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.

NARRATOR: This all-important heat
shield is the product of 10 years work

by engineer Betsy Congdon.

FOX:
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.

CONGDON: 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.

NARRATOR: 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.

♪ ♪

FOX: 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.

(seagulls cawing)

NARRATOR:
With no guidance from Earth,

tiny censors 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.

CONGDON:
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, an 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.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: 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-life test.

The temperature is rising.

The probe is reaching the sun.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The Parker Solar Probe

has traveled 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.

CHRISTIAN:
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.

♪ ♪

FOX:
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.

NARRATOR:
November 1st, 2018...

Parker Solar Probe hits
179,000 miles an hour.

It is now the fastest object
ever made by humankind.

(whooshing by)

(sun rumbling)

CHRISTIAN: 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 we mean
by touch the sun.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
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.

VIALL:
It's incredibly hot.

The energetic particles are
going to be very extreme.

Incredibly hostile place.

(rumbling)

CHRISTIAN:
The heat is tremendous.

The temperatures on the front face
of our carbon heat shield

are up over 1,000 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.

(rumbling)

NARRATOR:
On Earth, we think of light

as pure weightless illumination.

(waves lapping)

♪ ♪

This close to the sun,

light hits you like a hammer blow.

(rumbling)

The sheer pressure
of the photons of light,

its individual packets of energy,

pushes the probe with a physical force.

(wind blowing)

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.

KASPER:
We have successfully designed a spacecraft

that can survive plunging
into the sun's atmosphere.

And that's an incredible accomplishment.

(rumbling)

CHRISTIAN:
This is the moment we've been working for,

hard, all these years.

DRIESMAN:
Many, many hours. Many... gray hairs.

I had no gray hairs when
I started this mission.

NARRATOR:
It's not the end of the mission,

but on November the 5th, 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 perihelion.

The closest humankind
has ever been to a star.

♪ ♪

FOX:
To be flying through the corona

for the very first time
is just incredible.

It is uncharted territory,

and Parker Solar Probe is
blazing her way through there.

(rumbling)

Captioned by Point.360