Parker Solar Probe preparations. Time-lapse footage of engineers carrying out the assembly and testing of the Parker Solar Probe in August 2017. This footage includes general checks and a light bar test. Originally called Solar Probe, and then Solar Probe Plus, this mission was renamed in May 2017 after solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker. The mission is being carried out by NASA and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Launched on 12 August 2018, the unmanned probe has sensors to carry out five investigations of the Sun. Using a solar shield for protection, the probe will gradually approach to within 6 million kilometres of the solar surface (photosphere), making its close approaches to the Sun in 2024 and 2025. This time-lapse sequence, filmed in a clean room at JHU's APL, Maryland, USA, was obtained between 21 and 25 August 2017. For three time-lapse clips showing the assembly work between 1 and 25 August, see K007/8412, K007/8415 and K007/8413. |