TRANSCRIPT
NASA has confirmed its Parker Solar Probe is safe and operating normally after completing the closest-ever approach to the Sun by a human-made object.
On the 24th of December, the probe flew 6.1 million kilometres from the Sun’s surface, entering its outer atmosphere, the corona.
Dr Joe Westlake is NASA’s heliophysics director.
"Today, we actually we got back very late at night. Last night, actually last night, about 11:50 p.m. Eastern time, we got back a green beacon from the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, indicating that it successfully completed humanity's closest approach to a star closest ever flyby to the Sun. And really just an amazing achievement. We were able to actually fly through the upper atmosphere of the corona of the sun, which is just an amazing thing, if you think about it."
Launched in 2018, Parker uses Venus flybys to tighten its orbit around the Sun.
Travelling at 692,000 kilometres per hour, it withstands temperatures up to 982 degrees Celsius thanks to a heat shield that keeps its electronics at a manageable 29 degrees.
Mr Westlake says the spacecraft’s closest approach was fully autonomous.
"And its closest approach happened on December 24th, and that all happens autonomously as the spacecraft operates and does its own thing. What we got yesterday was the confirmation that it survived. And, and what we'll get coming soon is the actual data from the flyby. So, it's it continues to excite."
Data transmission is expected to begin on the 1st of January, with early scientific results anticipated within weeks.
Mr Westlake called the mission a technological and scientific breakthrough.
"I mean, it's, it's amazing, right, to know that you can actually achieve a high you know, if you think about it like we humans have created a spacecraft, that spacecraft has gone on into the atmosphere of the sun. Like that's just a huge technological achievement and a huge scientific achievement for us at NASA. And to be able to know that, you know, our understanding of the Sun is good enough for us to actually send something that far into the atmosphere. You know, a solar probe has been something that that, you know, humanity has dreamed of doing since the early days of NASA."
Mr Westlake says Parker’s prime mission is aligned with the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle.
"Solar maximum happens every 11 years, and it happens because the Sun's magnetic field actually flips every 11 years. And as it sort of twists itself up into this very active ball of gas. Every 11 years, it gets very, very exciting. And then it has this slow and gradual decline back to the solar minimum times. Now, when we got ready to launch Parker, we knew that that its prime mission, right? There was a lot of a lot of pressure to get Parker launched in 2018 because we knew that in that prime mission and that these closest flybys that we would be in the solar maximum times and actually be able to capture some of this activity."
NASA engineers also faced moments of tension.
"We know we're going to lose communications. We know and it's going to come back. But like you think about like the Apollo days, right? People knew when they were going to lose communications with the humans on the far side of the moon. Right. We knew when, when we were going to get it and we knew by like the second one we were expecting to get it back. And so, sitting and watching the seconds tick down to see when, when Parker was going to be back in range and getting those first couple hits from the Deep Space Network, was just incredible. Like, you know, the anxiety of, oh, my gosh, did it make? Did it to survive? You know, high confidence in our engineers, high confidence in our team. I know we could do it."
With its prime mission nearing completion, Parker remains in a stable orbit and has sufficient resources for extended operations.
"So, we're getting towards the end of its prime mission. The end of its prime mission happens towards the end of this year. But we're in a very stable orbit. So, we're going to keep getting more and more solar flybys. And, you know, there's enough, enough propellant, enough resources on board the mission for it to keep going for quite some time. And so, we're going to be looking at it for an extended mission, trying to understand what additional science that we can get. But then also, you know, as we as the solar maximum sort of ramps down, as we continue to get activity off of the Sun, we're going to be wanting to do more and more flybys and hopefully capture some real unique events."
