How utterly insane this achievement is. They even did it during the day!

Please don't ever stop the insane engineering series

Kudos to the camera man who had to fly next to the sun to capture this insane achievement!

The fact that you explain the mathematics/science behind(formulas) made me a fan. I’ve been looking for depth, basically, more than regurgitation of articles I’ve already read. Thank you, work is very much appreciated! As a note, a little bit more in depth explanations of the math/formula and orgo/chem would be the ultimate!

The first parts of this didn't sound too crazy compared to some of the other videos you've done, but the longer the video went on, it was like we were descending further into the depths of engineering madness. Astronomy is indeed insane.

The small details that took literal centuries for humanity to discover and perfect to this point is what was mind blowing to me. Niobium wire insulated by sapphire sounds so simple.. yet also sounds like science fiction. I feel like Carbon foam and Niobium C-103 alloy could be the subject of entire Real Engineering videos. How do we even collectively get to that point?

I don't think there is a better way to explain this with non-engineers... I kept up mostly, and learned a number of things! Thanks!

They should've gone at dawn when the sun is barely shining, It's colder, so they don't have to worry about the heat.

Something that would also be good to mention that this probe also measured Venus during it's encounters. It even made a map of Venus's surface.

The amount of math needed to get that many gravity assists out of Venus is insane

Guys, thanks for this amazing video... and for releasing it for free! This is far beyond what I ever saw on television, even on the very few remaining channels that place fact above fiction yet.

Can't help but think they should've called the probe "Icarus".

Could you take a look at the engineering and applications of sodium ion batteries? I’ve been hearing about them for grid storage, but I would love to hear your analysis.

Small nitpick. While Falcon Heavy is the highest payload to orbit currently available, Delta IV Heavy has higher interplanetary payload because of its significantly more efficient upper stage

As an engineer myself, I absolutely love engineering and all that it has to offer. I love how we use our knowledge and problem solving skills to create something useful and beautiful! This “I Love Engineering” channel is a great example of how engineering can be made entertaining, showing some of the best engineering breakthroughs. It also does a great job highlighting the talented engineers that make up the backbone of our society. It really encourages me to learn more about engineering and stay on top of all the new developments out there. Kudos to this channel!

17:09 They have recently generated more energy than the energy used to start the fusion reaction. It's funny, 10 months ago they probably thought that it would take 50-100 years to achieve that

Some clarification of what "temperature" means in different contexts is probably needed. When you say the temperature is "only" 3000ºC at the surface of the sun but over 500000ºC in the corona, a clarification is in order because temperature has a completely different meaning than what most people would expect when talking about mostly empty space. That is, the corona has a "high temperature" but a "low heat content" due to it being mostly empty space - a thermometer placed there would *not* show hundreds of thousands of degrees. Otherwise the later part of the video, where you mention they use materials like tungsten that have a melting point of 3400ºC would make no sense. In particular, you mention they can get about 3500ºC with the concave mirrors at the Odellio Solar Furnace for testing, and that such temperature is *twice* what the heat shield is expected to encounter...

Hi, great video! A few points to clarify on the fusion side. The ‘able to produce 70% of the input energy’ is a little inaccurate. The plasma produces, in the form of heat, 70% of the power heating it. However, that isn’t 70% of the input electrical power. There are efficiency losses between the electrical power fed to the heating systems and the amount of heating power that actually heats the plasma. Likewise, the power produced is in the form of heat, not electricity, and you need to produce a fair bit more heat to compensate for efficiency losses when producing electricity. ITER will not be hooked up to a system to generate electricity from heat. The next reactor that is planned after ITER is DEMO, which is supposed to produce electricity. The UKs STEP reactor is an electricity producing demonstration device scheduled for completion in 2040. Also, ITER will not really be finished in 2025. That’s the first stage, where they can test when they have assembled so far with realtively low performance plasmas. If all looks good they will continue with assembly. The next (thermal) energy producing ITER operations will use a deuterium-tritium fuel mix and aren’t scheduled until around 2035. Even then, no electricity will be produced. DEMO is being designed currently and won’t be online (assuming it ever gets approved) until at least 2050. Many private fusion companies have popped up over the last decade that aim to have electricity producing demonstrator devices in the early 2030s. The faster pace of private companies is a result of incorporating new technologies that either allow the reactors to be built smaller and hence much more quickly, or have some novel approach. Some such technologies weren't around when ITER was being designed, another drawback to the long time it has taken to construct it. The reason ITER is taking so long is, among many other factors, due to its immense size. When it comes to tokamak fusion reactors, building bigger does move you toward more fusion relevant conditions in your plasma, but at the cost of the devices taking longer to be built. New technologies have emerged since ITER started construction, which enable the magnetic field strength of the fusion reactor to be much larger. This also moves the reactor toward more fusion relevant conditions, without having to make it enormously large. Hence you can build such devices much quicker. Hope this was informative! Great video as always.

I remember signing up to have my name put on a microchip that would be put on the space probe, wow that was long ago

It's crazy how much knowledge you can gain by making such a channel. Brian , you 're a legend

This is the thing I love about exploration, especially when people say, why are we doing this. Not only is it giving us interesting information, but it makes us invent new technology which may just come in useful in every day life in ways we can’t even imagine yet.

I remember the day it launched. I was at Disney world with my parents and we found out about the launch the day before. Luckily, we were able to see the launch since our hotel wasn't to far from Kennedy space center. I remember waking up at around 2 in the morning with so much excitement and putting on the nasa channel. Then, I saw a big glowing ball which I knew was the rocket. It has been the only rocket launch I've ever seen in person and it was an awesome experience

India's Aditya L1 mission was launched to lagrange L1 point with similar objectives. This is a great opportunity for ISRO and NASA to share and compile data.

Under a year after this upload and we have a successful fusion reaction.

Seeing these miracles of the human mind out there, ready and well able to explore the space for us.....makes us take them all for granted. That's why, watching videos like this is SO FASCINATING and enlightening. Thank you.

It's amazing how the engineering of the Parker Solar Probe required other engineering projects that are all worthy of "The Insane Engineering of [X]" videos in their own right. Like both from construction and also in experiment design.

Finally Great! I ' ve been waiting for it for a million years

0:56 Thermosphere: “Am I a joke to you?”

Parker space probe: touches sun Icarus: vindicated

I absolutely love how versatile (weird) carbon is. A carbon-carbon composite just sounds like non-sense but it's a legit engineering composite with very special properties. Amazing! Great video as always.

btw I always find it interesting that in all video animations featuring an object close to the sun, the sun always looks like a big red fireball whereas in reality it would be a white orb so bright it drowns out all other light.

This is an awesome vid. I had no idea about the probe cup being in the direct line of fire. You got a couple things wrong, but overall, this was a great watch.

As a machinist I get to work with some of the more "mundane" exotic materials like incolnel and titanium carbide, the processes and materials in this project blew me away. I had no idea.

If anyone was wondering why Parker was flown on a Delta IV Heavy instead of a Falcon Heavy, the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage is a hydrolox stage with a RL-10 engine. The Falcon Heavy uses a kerolox Merlin stage. Rockets have different metrics, so calling one 'most powerful' is a big dishonest. Essentially, the hydrolox stage has a greater throw weight over long distance. FH can lift more to LEO than DIVH, but when you are talking interplanetary missions FH starts to lose out

Very informative video. Thanks for the great presentation!

Good job, one is growing to understand the outer limits that once talked about. Thanks for the info.

100 years ago, if you say that we're going to probe the sun, people will think you're daydreaming. It's really fascinating how quick and how far humanity has progressed in such a relatively short time.

I was actually part of this in regards to maintaining the sql databases that were part of the launch procedure. Such an amazing feat for human kind!

Thanks for the well done video. What I liked most about this video is that it wasn't degraded by having to look at someone's face presenting this video.

Awesome video, well delivered and researched...bravo! There are some clever people working on difficult problems in the aerospace industry with folks cooperating from various nations, what does a brutal war got on exploring our most essential solar/cosmic mass, bringing light, warmth, life and enabling photosythesis?

My favorite moment in this video was definitely the infrared imagery on the Parker solar probes last pass into the sun's coronosphere! That part when the Milky Way pans across is so beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing this for everyone to enjoy! 🥰 🤯

Humans, as a species, are really good at throwing things with accuracy. We have come up with lots of throwing alternatives to give us more speed, power, distance...such as a long sticks which are used to launch another object (spear. Lacrosse ball. Hockey puck. Etc.) Tension based launchers that can be used to hurl an object (bows and slingshots) I like to think of rockets and just one version of explosion-powered throwing. And with some of these we can adjust the throw "midair" now. We just have to crunch some math to make sure our "throw" is right, because we have reached such ridiculous proportions in our range.

I love it when exotic materials are used for science and purpose, not glorified objects of wealth. This satellite with its instruments are beyond amazing! Well done scientists! 👏

You and your team is truly amazing great work

thank you KSP for teaching me the basics of orbital mechanics that nowadays provide me with background knowledge to understand parts of this video quite easily. Thank you HarvesteR, and the rest of the team. S2

Aphelion is pronounced app-hee-lee-on as opposed to ay-fee-lee-on. The helion part remains the same just the ap and peri change.

We just need to send more probes to Uranus.

Very informative and exciting to watch well done NASA quite an achievement.

How gorgeous your video format is boggles my mind! The video is so well-written, shot and edited. Keep it up, your work matters!

I am a Nigerian mechanical engineering (not a scammer ) student, and I have been watching your channel for about 4 years now, and with every video I watch I think more and more as a real engineer , So thank you. Ps the insane engineering series is the best thing since sliced bread thanks.

Awesome video! Thanks for this!!

The sun is kind of a mood to be honest, impossibly hot in the surrounding area, but on the surface it's nice and warm; only those few willing to wether and break through the exterior layer will get to experience how pleasant the interior really is

This video was amazingly informative. I'm awed by the scientist and engineers who make space exploration possible.

I very much appreciate the education you provide in your videos!

This is truly unbelievable. It's hard to comprehend

I am a layman but I would guess that the reason the surface is colder than atmosphere is because some force or pressure is higher inside and/or at the surface forcing energetic particles out faster which then slow down after exiting the sun, and as such have more time to radiate heat into the area around the sun as they are moving slower. I'm thinking similar to airflow over a curved surface

Absolutely bonkers! The expertise and sheer hours spent on this mission, and the amount of evolution taken to get to this point, is truly mind-melting!

Been a Nebula subscriber for a long time and absolutely love it, very excited for the new series! This was a really interesting video too, superb work as always!

by far the most interesting video i seen this year.

This kind of stuff makes me wildly excited to be an engineer. I’ve got an internship interview today and about 2 more years in college

I was very proud to hear that you chose Ultramet as your source of carbon foam refractory materials for the heat shield. I started my career in chemistry in 1996 at Ultramet (however it was a sister company initially operating in the facility in Sun Valley CA).

This is so amazingly difficult that it should be impossible. Congratulations to the team that made this possible!

Absolutely fantastic video good sir!

gotta whole animated graphic of the faraday cup..... amazing what an excellent video

This was truly an amazing video. You did a tremendous job telling it in great detail. And I see you've got like another million subs. Congrats on a great channel. Keep them coming. And thankyou for sharing.

Magnificent engineering, some of us never thought we’d see the day something like this could be achieved.

Years spent playing Kerbal was really worth it

I love how we know what materials are needed and how to change those materials to our will when things like lasers wouldn't work. Understanding our world is amazing.

I can't explain how much I waited for this Thank you so much real engineering Ur insanely smart.

This mission was badass since the start when Delta IV lit itself on fire as a tribute and got even crazier from there. Can't wait for the next passes and what data the probe delivers.

Wow! I was looking for this for a long time! And today here it is a year later.

9:18 Loving the heat shield though. With a few of those we can pick up glider landing for cargo ships into orbit again. No need to break speed, just let the heat shield handle it.

Temperature is a very abstract concept. Especially at such low densities.

I usually don't have the attention span required for a 20 min YT video. Not this time. What an excellent job!

This sort of content is really important IMHO - to keep people hopeful and optimistic at a time when so many things point at potential disaster (anti-fact conspiracy theories and politicians, spreading violence, climate change, etc)

It’s so cool how hot the sun can be even when it’s winter!

Great video with great information. And the narration is perfect for speeding up to 2X to save time. I'm really excited about this kind of heat deflection technology and sun approaching probes. It's one step closer to star lifting, something that could, if we crack it, could pave the way for space bases and solar collection mega structures. (I just realized that the plans of most orbital solar collectors rely on setting up mercury and mining it out to get material, but if we can start star lifting before that, it would save a lot of time and resources.)

At maximum speed it could cross the entire island of Britain in about 3 seconds

I had no idea the probe operates that close to the sun. I thought it was much further away. That is one hell of accomplishment.

Starting to understand the "aw' in awesome.

Being an engineering enthusiast, I am so lucky to have people like you who continuosly post amazing informative videos like this one, and many more. Never stop, you are the best! Greetings from Switzerland!

Absolutely stunning stuff, as per usual. Easily one of the most interesting, best curated channel on the scientific side of UKposts.

This is a huge, interesting mission for me. Especially it's closest approach. Speeds near 1/2 a million miles/hr are predicted. That is amazing. Makes all other spacecraft launches and their speeds a laughable thing in comparison. Note: Looking forward to the "Sundiver: Telescope" the fastest telescope in history (1 million miles per hour + ) heading to the Sun's gravitation lense. And 1000's of au's beyond!!!

Greetings to you,mine of concept,once again.Thank you,Rudy,for safe flights,deep space travels,and long term established missions.May God bless you for this protection.👏🏾😉😊

Props to the insane cameraman!

The engineering behind this probe is trully amazing. Great achievement!

The atmosphere of the Sun being the hottest part could be due to the fact solar flares and radiation are launched up so the atmosphere gets more heating than the "surface" as the heat giving out by the core of the Sun dissipates as it moves up so the "surface" is not actually that hot.

Amazing video, thank you.

Please do a video on small nuclear reactors, especially thorium reactors. Excellent content, as always!

This is beyond fascinating. I remember when they offered "The hot ticket" back in 2018. Time flies.

Amazing technology! Amazing achievement!

the real weird thing about orbital mechanics is the parker solar probe is both the fastest travelling satellite we have sent out and it is the slowest to orbit the sun, so from a solar perspective it is the slowest, while being the fastest thing to move, like the more energy you put into something the slower it moves relative to the star as you get further and further away, voyager 1 and 2 are technically the fastest we have made something move yet they move the slowest around the sun

I always heard this joke that if someone wants to land at the Sun, they must do it at night. NASA took it personally and launched the probe at night 5:17.

That solar furnace looks amazing! I want to see a video on that! Great video.

I love having a theory on the universe that explains the process.

mind blowing how there's scientists designing and engineering feats like these and meanwhile there's still people who believe the earth is flat.

Great video as always. I have just one issue with it: you said the process of changing the altitude of apoapsis or periapsis was named a Hohmann transfer. This is not true. A Hohmann transfer is the combination of two of the maneuvers you described, performed with the goal of elevating or lowering the orbital altitude as a whole. i.e. going from a 450km(Apoapsis) x 400km(Periapsis) orbit to a 1200km x 1100km orbit could be achieved via Hohmann transfer, going from a 450km x 400km orbit to a 450km x 800km orbit could not, as that can be done in one maneuver. The defining characteristic of a Hohmann transfer is that it consists of two maneuvers, done sequentially at opposite points in the orbit, both of which are either prograde or retrograde.

Thank you for the explanations of these very interesting subjects

Great informative video

The face I made when I heard the word “Niobium” for the first time 😂 This is an amazing video dude