Lasers Fired At NASA's Parker Solar Probe

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 simulate the noise and shaking the spacecraft will experience during its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, scheduled for 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.

Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Joy Ng (USRA): Producer
Sarah Frazier (ADNET SYSTEMS): Writer

Music credit: 'Push Away' by Andrew Michael Britton [PRS], David Stephen Goldsmith [PRS], Mikey Rowe [PRS] from Killer Tracks.

This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12795

If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer

Or subscribe to NASA’s Goddard Shorts HD Podcast: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f0004_index.html

Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC
· Twitter https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/
· Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard/
· Google+ https://plus.google.com/+NASAGoddard/posts