Execution of Parker Solar Probe's unprecedented flight to the Sun and early results
Yanping Guo, Paul Thompson, John H. Wirzburger, N. Pinkine, Stewart Bushman, Troy Goodson, Rob Haw, James F. Hudson, Drew R. Jones, Seth Kijewski, Brian Lathrop, E. L. Lau, N. A. Mottinger, Mark Ryne, Wen-Jong Shyong, Powtawche Valerino, Karl Whittenburg
Abstract
Parker Solar Probe (PSP) was launched on August 12, 2018, on its way to enter the solar corona and “touch” the Sun for the first time. We utilize enormous planetary gravity assists from 7 repeated Venus flybys via a V7GA trajectory in 24 solar orbits over 7 years, to get within 8.86 solar radii from the Sun's surface. The probe successfully entered the V7GA trajectory and made the first Venus flyby only 52 days after launch. Five weeks later it flew by the Sun at a perihelion distance of 0.166 AU and flyby speed of 95.3 km/s, setting new records as the closest craft to the Sun and the fastest human-made object. In this paper, the overall strategy, plan, process, and early flight results and performance for PSP's flight execution including in-flight trajectory control and re-optimization, orbit determination and navigation, and trajectory correction maneuvers are presented. The unique challenges and operation constraints we encountered in flying a solar mission are described.