{ "id": 12992, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12992/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Cutting-Edge Heat Shield Installed on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe", "description": "The launch of Parker Solar Probe, the mission that will get closer to the Sun than any human-made object has ever gone, is quickly approaching, and on June 27, 2018, Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System, or TPS – was installed on the spacecraft. A mission sixty years in the making, Parker Solar Probe will make a historic journey to the Sun’s corona, a region of the solar atmosphere. With the help of its revolutionary heat shield, now permanently attached to the spacecraft in preparation for its August 2018 launch, the spacecraft’s orbit will carry it to within 4 million miles of the Sun's fiercely hot surface, where it will collect unprecedented data about the inner workings of the corona. The eight-foot-diameter heat shield will safeguard everything within its umbra, the shadow it casts on the spacecraft. At Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun, temperatures on the heat shield will reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the spacecraft and its instruments will be kept at a relatively comfortable temperature of about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat shield is made of two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core. The Sun-facing side of the heat shield is also sprayed with a specially formulated white coating to reflect as much of the Sun’s energy away from the spacecraft as possible. The heat shield itself weighs only about 160 pounds – here on Earth, the foam core is 97% air. Because Parker Solar Probe travels so fast – 430,000 miles per hour at its closest approach to the Sun, fast enough to travel from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in about one second – the shield and spacecraft have to be light to achieve the needed orbit. The reinstallation of the Thermal Protection System – which was briefly attached to the spacecraft during testing at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, in fall 2017 – marks the first time in months that Parker Solar Probe has been fully integrated. The heat shield and spacecraft underwent testing and evaluation separately at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before shipping out to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, in April 2018. With the recent reunification, Parker Solar Probe inches closer to launch and toward the Sun. Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star Program, or LWS, to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by NASA Goddard for the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory manages the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA. APL designed and built the spacecraft and will also operate it. || ", "release_date": "2018-07-05T11:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:46:39.534706-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 402335, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012992/18-06-27_PSP_Flight_TPS_Installation_B-Roll_UHD_V2_Short_18-00001.00215_print.jpg", "filename": "18-06-27_PSP_Flight_TPS_Installation_B-Roll_UHD_V2_Short_18-00001.00215_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "B-roll - Short versionParker Solar Probe’s heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, is lifted and realigned with the spacecraft’s truss as engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab prepare to install the eight-foot-diameter heat shield on June 27, 2018.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman ", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 }, "main_video": { "id": 402340, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012992/18-06-27_PSP_Flight_TPS_Installation_B-Roll_UHD_V2_Short_18-00001_1080_Prores.mov", "filename": "18-06-27_PSP_Flight_TPS_Installation_B-Roll_UHD_V2_Short_18-00001_1080_Prores.mov", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "B-roll - Short versionParker Solar Probe’s heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, is lifted and realigned with the spacecraft’s truss as engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab prepare to install the eight-foot-diameter heat shield on June 27, 2018.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman ", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_credits": {}, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 326245, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12992/#media_group_326245", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "The launch of Parker Solar Probe, the mission that will get closer to the Sun than any human-made object has ever gone, is quickly approaching, and on June 27, 2018, Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield – called the Thermal Protection System, or TPS – was installed on the spacecraft.

\r\rA mission sixty years in the making, Parker Solar Probe will make a historic journey to the Sun’s corona, a region of the solar atmosphere. With the help of its revolutionary heat shield, now permanently attached to the spacecraft in preparation for its August 2018 launch, the spacecraft’s orbit will carry it to within 4 million miles of the Sun's fiercely hot surface, where it will collect unprecedented data about the inner workings of the corona.

\r\rThe eight-foot-diameter heat shield will safeguard everything within its umbra, the shadow it casts on the spacecraft. At Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun, temperatures on the heat shield will reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the spacecraft and its instruments will be kept at a relatively comfortable temperature of about 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

\r\rThe heat shield is made of two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core. The Sun-facing side of the heat shield is also sprayed with a specially formulated white coating to reflect as much of the Sun’s energy away from the spacecraft as possible.

\r\rThe heat shield itself weighs only about 160 pounds – here on Earth, the foam core is 97% air. Because Parker Solar Probe travels so fast – 430,000 miles per hour at its closest approach to the Sun, fast enough to travel from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in about one second – the shield and spacecraft have to be light to achieve the needed orbit.

\r\rThe reinstallation of the Thermal Protection System – which was briefly attached to the spacecraft during testing at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, in fall 2017 – marks the first time in months that Parker Solar Probe has been fully integrated. The heat shield and spacecraft underwent testing and evaluation separately at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before shipping out to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, in April 2018. With the recent reunification, Parker Solar Probe inches closer to launch and toward the Sun.

\r\rParker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star Program, or LWS, to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by NASA Goddard for the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory manages the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA. APL designed and built the spacecraft and will also operate it.

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Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, is lifted and realigned with the spacecraft’s truss as engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab prepare to install the eight-foot-diameter heat shield on June 27, 2018.

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Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield, called the Thermal Protection System, is lifted and realigned with the spacecraft’s truss as engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab prepare to install the eight-foot-diameter heat shield on June 27, 2018.

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The Thermal Protection System connects to the custom-welded truss on the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft at six points to minimize heat conduction.

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Parker Solar Probe’s heat shield is made of two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core. To reflect as much of the Sun’s energy away from the spacecraft as possible, the Sun-facing side of the heat shield is also sprayed with a specially formulated white coating.

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To reflect as much of the Sun’s energy away from the spacecraft as possible, the Sun-facing side of the heat shield is also sprayed with a specially formulated white coating.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman\r", "width": 6720, "height": 4480, "pixels": 30105600 } }, { "id": 246815, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 402360, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012992/5D29803_searchweb.png", "filename": "5D29803_searchweb.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Still ImageParker Solar Probe’s heat shield is made of two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core. 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On Thursday, May 31, 2018, the spacecraft’s solar arrays were installed and tested. These arrays will power all of the spacecraft’s systems, including the suites of scientific instruments studying the solar wind and the Sun’s corona as well as the Solar Array Cooling System (SACS) that will protect the arrays from the extreme heat at the Sun. “Unlike solar-powered missions that operate far from the Sun and are focused only on generating power from it, we need to manage the power generated along with the substantial heat that comes from being so close to the Sun,” said Andy Driesman, project manager from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “When we’re out around the orbit of Venus, we fully extend the arrays to get the power we need. But when we’re near the Sun, we tuck the arrays back until only a small wing is exposed, and that portion is enough to provide needed electrical power.”The solar arrays are cooled by a gallon of water that circulates through tubes in the arrays and into large radiators at the top of the spacecraft. They are just over three and a half feet (1.12 meters) long and nearly two and a half feet (0.69 meters) wide. Mounted on motorized arms, the arrays will retract almost all of their surface behind the Thermal Protection System – the heat shield – when the spacecraft is close to the Sun. The solar array installation marks some of the final preparation and testing of Parker Solar Probe leading up to the mission’s July 31 launch date. || ", "release_date": "2018-06-06T15:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:46:43.128284-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 402870, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012979/5D16135.jpg", "filename": "5D16135.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "After installation of the solar arrays on May 31, 2018, Parker Solar Probe team members use a laser to illuminate the solar cells and verify that they can create electricity and transfer it to the spacecraft.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman", "width": 1920, "height": 1280, "pixels": 2457600 } }, { "id": 12946, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12946/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Solar Power: Parker Solar Probe Tests Its Arrays", "description": "NASA’s Parker Solar Probe gets its power from the Sun, so the solar arrays that collect energy from our star need to be in perfect working order. This month, members of the mission team tested of the arrays at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to ensure the system performs as designed and provides power to the spacecraft during its historic mission to the Sun.Parker Solar Probe is powered by two solar arrays, totaling just under 17 square feet (1.55 square meters) in area. They are mounted to motorized arms that will retract almost all of their surface behind the Thermal Protection System – the heat shield – when the spacecraft is close to the Sun. || ", "release_date": "2018-05-08T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:46:50.034847-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 404150, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012900/a012946/1.jpg", "filename": "1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is powered by two solar arrays, shown here on May 2, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman", "width": 1920, "height": 1626, "pixels": 3121920 } }, { "id": 12917, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12917/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Parker Solar Probe Travels to Florida", "description": "Parker Solar Probe Arrives in FloridaOn April 4, 2018, Parker Solar Probe project scientist Nicky Fox of Johns Hopkins APL describes the spacecraft's April 3 journey to Florida and arrival at Astrotech Space Operations, the probe's new home before a scheduled launch on July 31, 2018 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. 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Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Lee HobsonWatch this video on the Johns Hopkins APL YouTube channel.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 12795, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12795/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Parker Solar Probe: Environmental Testing", "description": "NASA’s Parker Solar Probe passed laser illumination testing the week of Nov. 27, 2017. During this test, each segment of the spacecraft’s solar panels was illuminated with lasers to check that they were still electrically connected after the vigorous vibration and acoustic testing completed earlier this fall. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is in the midst of intense environmental testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in preparation for its journey to the Sun. These tests have simulated the noise and shaking the spacecraft will experience during its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, scheduled for July 31, 2018.Parker Solar Probe’s integration and testing team must check over the spacecraft and systems to make sure everything is still in optimal working condition after experiencing these rigorous conditions – including a check of the solar arrays, which will provide electrical power to the spacecraft.Parker Solar Probe will explore the Sun's outer atmosphere and make critical observations that will answer decades-old questions about the physics of stars. The resulting data will also help improve how we forecast major eruptions on the Sun and subsequent space weather events that can impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space. The mission is named for Eugene N. Parker, whose profound insights into solar physics and processes have helped shape the field of heliophysics.Link to Parker Solar Probe blog post. || ", "release_date": "2017-12-06T11:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:47:09.853715-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 408986, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012700/a012795/12795_SPS_LaserTesting_BROLL_large.00089_print.jpg", "filename": "12795_SPS_LaserTesting_BROLL_large.00089_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A collection of b-roll gathered during the laser testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. ", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 12726, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12726/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Parker Solar Probe: Testing and Integration", "description": "Main flight harness installation.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_large.00021_print.jpg (1024x576) [120.4 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_large.00021_searchweb.png (320x180) [75.4 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_large.00021_web.png (320x180) [75.4 KB] || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_large.00021_thm.png (80x40) [5.6 KB] || 12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_prores.mov (1920x1080) [2.9 GB] || PRORES_B-ROLL-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_prores.mov (1280x720) [1.5 GB] || YOUTUBE_1080-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [373.7 MB] || APPLE_TV-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_appletv.m4v (1280x720) [117.9 MB] || NASA_TV-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072.mpeg (1280x720) [697.9 MB] || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_large.mp4 (1920x1080) [209.3 MB] || 17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [408.5 MB] || LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_blanketing_17-08-01-08_SPP_Timelapse_17-00_large.webm (1280x720) [15.6 MB] || NASA_PODCAST-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-04-05_Top_Deck_SACS_Installation_Dolbow_Ruiz_17-00072_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [38.5 MB] || ", "release_date": "2017-09-22T18:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:47:20.947253-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 410657, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012700/a012726/LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-08-21-25_SPP_Timelapse_17-00_large.00042_print.jpg", "filename": "LARGE_MP4-12726_ParkerSolarProbe_17-08-21-25_SPP_Timelapse_17-00_large.00042_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Busy week with fit checks as well as a light bar test as the spacecraft prepares for launch in 2018.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }