As NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaches its third encounter with the Sun, mission scientists are hard at work poring over data from the spacecraft’s first two flybys of our star — and thanks to excellent performance by the spacecraft and the mission operations team, they’re about to get something extra.
On May 6, 2019, just over a month after Parker Solar Probe completed its second solar encounter, the final transmission of 22 gigabytes of planned science data — collected during the first two encounters — was downlinked by the mission team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL, in Laurel, Maryland.
This 22 GB is 50% more data than the team had estimated would be downlinked by this point in the mission — all because the spacecraft’s telecommunications system is performing better than pre-launch estimates. After characterizing the spacecraft’s operations during the commissioning phase, which began soon after launch, the Parker mission team determined that the telecom system could effectively deliver more downlink opportunities, helping the team maximize the download of science data.
The team has capitalized on the higher downlink rate, instructing Parker Solar Probe to record and send back extra science data gathered during its second solar encounter. This additional 25 GB of science data will be downlinked to Earth between July 24 and Aug. 15.
“All of the expected science data collected through the first and second encounters is now on the ground,” said Nickalaus Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at APL. “As we learned more about operating in this environment and these orbits, the team did a great job of increasing data downloads of the information gathered by the spacecraft’s amazing instruments.”
There are four instrument suites on Parker, gathering data on particles, waves, and fields related to the Sun’s corona and the solar environment. Scientists use this information — gathered closer to the Sun than any previous measurements — along with data from other satellites and scientific models to expand on what we currently know about the Sun and how it behaves. Data collected during the first two perihelia will be made available to the public later this year.
Parker Solar Probe continues on its record-breaking exploration of the Sun with its third solar encounter beginning Aug. 27, 2019; the spacecraft’s third perihelion will occur on Sept. 1.
By Geoff Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
