NASA scheduled extensive pre and post-launch media activities around the Parker Solar Probe launch on Sunday, August 12, 2018.
Rob Andreoli (AIMM) and Producer Anthony Stewart (Mori Associates Inc.) test systems and communications before the live broadcast. (Mark Hailey Photo)
AIMM employees Rob Andreoli, sr. project manager, and Sophia Roberts, media producer, supported the Sunset Show program and NASA live video events surrounding the launch.
Sophia Roberts on camera for NASA TV with the principle investigator and local TV live shots. (Mark Hailey Photo)
Dr. Eugene Parker had a theory over 60 years ago that created a firestorm of disagreement in the science community.
NASA photo – Dr. Eugene Parker
The Parker Solar Probe is named to honor Dr. Parker who proposed the existence of solar winds. Other experts doubted his theory until 1962 when the existence of solar winds was proven using data from the Mariner mission to Venus, which was the first probe to visit another planet.
Sometimes people sound a little puzzled as to why do you want to go to such a hotspot?” Dr. Parker said “And the answer is because we have reason to believe that interesting things are going on.”
The Parker satellite will pass within 3.8 million miles of the sun’s visible surface — well within the shimmering halo of the outer atmosphere, or corona — the spacecraft’s heat shield will endure 2,500-degree heating while whipping past the star at a record 430,000 mph, fast enough to fly from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute.
The goal is to help scientists figure out what makes the corona hotter than the sun’s visible surface and what accelerates charged particles to enormous velocities, producing the solar wind that streams away from the corona in all directions.
Additional information on the Parker Satellite: http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu
The Launch video: https://youtu.be/50eruw-In5w
Project Overview video: https://youtu.be/zJo0tIxNLxU
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