1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,350 \h Music. 2 00:00:02,350 --> 00:00:08,020 \h NARRATOR : When it comes to learning about stars, there is no closer classroom than our sun. 3 00:00:08,020 --> 00:00:15,410 \h That's why NASA began an in-depth study of the sun and Earth relationship in a program dubbed "Living with a Star." 4 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:20,830 \h The first mission in the space weather program is the Solar Dynamics Observatory, 5 00:00:20,830 --> 00:00:31,080 \h or SDO, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 6 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:35,490 \h Tiffany Nail/NASA's Launch Services Program: Welcome to the Solar Dynamics Observatory webcast. 7 00:00:35,490 --> 00:00:39,540 \h I'm Tiffany Nail of NASA's Launch Services Program. 8 00:00:39,540 --> 00:00:45,510 \h In the next few minutes, we'll tell you what SDO might uncover about the sun and how 9 00:00:45,510 --> 00:00:53,110 \h all of us on Earth can benefit from finding out more about that bright orange disk in the sky. 10 00:00:53,110 --> 00:00:57,660 \h But SDO is not NASA's first mission to study the sun. 11 00:00:57,660 --> 00:01:00,820 \h NARRATOR: Several of NASA's past missions focused on the sun. 12 00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:08,300 \h Pioneer 5 was the first. It launched in 1960 with instruments to study the solar wind and other phenomena. 13 00:01:08,300 --> 00:01:11,800 \h The instruments are primitive by today's standards, but back then, 14 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:16,140 \h Pioneer gave researchers their first up-close look at a star. 15 00:01:16,140 --> 00:01:23,020 \h In 1973, NASA made observing the sun a central goal of the Skylab space station. 16 00:01:23,020 --> 00:01:28,040 \h The agency's first space station included a telescope designed to look closely at the sun. 17 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:32,690 \h Astronauts living on the station spent hours making specialized observations. 18 00:01:32,690 --> 00:01:37,010 \h Dean Pesnell/SDO Project Scientist: What they found on Skylab was what we call coronal holes. 19 00:01:37,010 --> 00:01:41,420 \h And we did not know about coronal holes until they started taking these images. 20 00:01:41,420 --> 00:01:49,630 \h I would say that Skylab coming out with that type of photography was one of its most important things. 21 00:01:49,630 --> 00:01:52,650 \h NARRATOR: SDO's cutting-edge instruments offer researchers an 22 00:01:52,650 --> 00:01:58,430 \h unprecedented opportunity to examine the star at the center of our solar system. 23 00:01:58,430 --> 00:02:04,210 \h In fact, the readings are expected to be precise enough for researchers to forecast solar weather, 24 00:02:04,210 --> 00:02:11,780 \h and predict when satellites in space and even electronics on Earth will be endangered by a storm on the sun. 25 00:02:11,780 --> 00:02:16,010 \h Dean Pesnell/SDO Project Scientist: We had 15 years of fairly constant data stream. 26 00:02:16,010 --> 00:02:25,020 \h And we've taken that data and designed SDO to improve the ability to do science and the ability to predict space weather. 27 00:02:25,020 --> 00:02:30,410 \h We measure not just the strength of the magnetic field, we measure also its direction. 28 00:02:30,410 --> 00:02:35,660 \h And we think that how much the magnetic field direction changes over a small part of 29 00:02:35,660 --> 00:02:41,500 \h the sun is probably related to whether or not space weather things are going to happen. 30 00:02:41,500 --> 00:02:48,550 \h NARRATOR: Solar flares can cause power surges on Earth, and wreak havoc on space stations and satellites orbiting the planet. 31 00:02:48,550 --> 00:02:55,960 \h So researchers want to find out what makes solar flares and other turbulent events occur on the sun and then find out if there is a 32 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,910 \h pattern or signs that we could use on Earth to predict future flares. 33 00:03:00,910 --> 00:03:07,070 \h Dean Pesnell/SDO Project Scientist: SDO will look at the sun and try to understand where the magnetic field comes from. 34 00:03:07,070 --> 00:03:12,710 \h When we talk about flares and coronal mass ejections, that's the sun getting rid of stuff. 35 00:03:12,710 --> 00:03:16,620 \h That magnetic field is no longer in the sun, it wants it gone. 36 00:03:16,620 --> 00:03:23,130 \h And it gets rid of the energy by having magnetic flares that release bright flashes of light. 37 00:03:23,130 --> 00:03:27,140 \h And it gets rid of the leftover magnetic field by just throwing it off. 38 00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:30,240 \h NARRATOR: The spacecraft will use three instruments to examine the sun, 39 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,790 \h including one that will take pictures rivaling the resolution of an IMAX movie. 40 00:03:34,790 --> 00:03:40,190 \h Another instrument, called the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, or HMI, will measure 41 00:03:40,190 --> 00:03:46,130 \h the sound waves bouncing around inside the sun to construct an image of the star's inner workings. 42 00:03:46,130 --> 00:03:50,980 \h The data could reveal why the sun operates in an 11-year cycle of activity. 43 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:55,620 \h The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment will monitor the sun's brightness 44 00:03:55,620 --> 00:03:59,670 \h in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength, which changes constantly. 45 00:03:59,670 --> 00:04:02,940 \h Elizabeth Citrin/SDO Project Manager: Our three instruments on here are really new and 46 00:04:02,940 --> 00:04:07,420 \h improved versions of some other instruments that have flown. Of course, 47 00:04:07,420 --> 00:04:11,630 \h we have a lot more data and we take a lot more pictures. 48 00:04:11,630 --> 00:04:15,730 \h So, and that's one thing the scientists love, because as they say, “The sun changes all of the time. 49 00:04:15,730 --> 00:04:21,770 \h It changes every second.” And we're going to be imaging it every second, and we image the full disc of the sun. 50 00:04:21,770 --> 00:04:26,190 \h NARRATOR: Taken together, the information SDO collects could give scientists ways to 51 00:04:26,190 --> 00:04:29,400 \h predict future solar disturbances and help developers on 52 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:34,960 \h Earth come up with ways to protect sensitive electronics in space and on the planet. 53 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:42,350 \h While the work from SDO is expected to be groundbreaking, it took a lot of researchers and several previous missions to show 54 00:04:42,350 --> 00:04:46,660 \h scientists what kind of instruments they would need to put on the spacecraft. 55 00:04:46,660 --> 00:04:52,490 \h Solar studies have relied on data from a host of missions looking at the sun from different perspectives. 56 00:04:52,490 --> 00:04:58,510 \h The Solar Maximum Mission launched in 1980 to look at solar flares and other events. 57 00:04:58,510 --> 00:05:02,130 \h The mission was extended by shuttle astronauts in 1984, 58 00:05:02,130 --> 00:05:08,190 \h who repaired the spacecraft in orbit. Solar Max operated until 1989. 59 00:05:08,190 --> 00:05:12,450 \h NASA and the European Space Agency jointly developed the Ulysses spacecraft, 60 00:05:12,450 --> 00:05:15,890 \h which launched on shuttle Discovery in 1990. 61 00:05:15,890 --> 00:05:21,180 \h Ulysses gave researchers unique looks at the sun's north and south poles. 62 00:05:21,180 --> 00:05:28,710 \h The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, known as SOHO, launched in 1995 aboard an Atlas II. 63 00:05:28,710 --> 00:05:36,630 \h SOHO's observations are similar to those envisioned for SDO, although SDO is carrying more advanced instruments. 64 00:05:36,630 --> 00:05:40,730 \h Elizabeth Citrin/SDO Project Manager: Well, the big challenge of this mission is its data rate. 65 00:05:40,730 --> 00:05:45,650 \h It's 150 megabits per second, 24 hours a day. 66 00:05:45,650 --> 00:05:52,860 \h It's relentless. Most of the astronomical spacecraft are looking at sort of faint sources, so they don't have that much light. 67 00:05:52,860 --> 00:05:59,610 \h We're looking at the sun. A lot of photons come off the sun and we've got to process those and get them down to the ground. 68 00:05:59,610 --> 00:06:04,220 \h NARRATOR: But before SDO can start its observations, it has to get into space. 69 00:06:04,220 --> 00:06:13,890 \h That is the job of a powerful Atlas V rocket. The Atlas will lift the 6,800-pound spacecraft to an orbit about 22,000 miles above Earth. 70 00:06:13,890 --> 00:06:19,570 \h The Atlas V is one of the largest boosters available to NASA, and was used to launch 71 00:06:19,570 --> 00:06:23,960 \h the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and moon-impacting LCROSS spacecraft. 72 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:27,450 \h Rex Engelhardt/SDO Mission Integration Manager: SDO is one of the largest solar observatories we've ever launched. 73 00:06:27,450 --> 00:06:32,180 \h It had a heavy-lift requirement, so we chose the Atlas V as the rocket for this mission. 74 00:06:32,180 --> 00:06:36,660 \h NARRATOR: The Atlas V also is unique for its launch structure. 75 00:06:36,660 --> 00:06:38,960 \h Rex Engelhardt/SDO Mission Integration Manager: Atlas V has been a very reliable rocket. 76 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,350 \h We've used it on a couple of NASA missions. 77 00:06:41,350 --> 00:06:46,770 \h It's unique in that it's chosen a clean-pad concept for its launch processing. 78 00:06:46,770 --> 00:06:50,580 \h The rocket's actually built on a mobile launch platform in the vehicle behind me, 79 00:06:50,580 --> 00:06:56,250 \h the Vertical Integration Facility, and then rolled out with rail cars out to the pad the day of launch. 80 00:06:56,250 --> 00:06:59,640 \h One advantage of this clean-pad concept that they chose is that the rocket is 81 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:04,460 \h processed safe and secure in a building and then it rolls out the day of launch. 82 00:07:04,460 --> 00:07:09,060 \h And that way if they have a problem, a storm or something like that, they can roll back into the facility. 83 00:07:09,060 --> 00:07:11,580 \h It's not exposed to the elements for very long. 84 00:07:11,580 --> 00:07:17,430 \h It just gives them a lot of flexibility in the processing and a lot of protection for the rocket as well as the spacecraft. 85 00:07:17,430 --> 00:07:22,770 \h NARRATOR: The day before launch, technicians will roll the rocket out of its protective service structure. 86 00:07:22,770 --> 00:07:28,500 \h They'll fuel the first stage and the Centaur upper stage as the Atlas stands on the pad. 87 00:07:28,500 --> 00:07:36,950 \h The spacecraft was built in Maryland at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and it arrived in Florida in August. 88 00:07:36,950 --> 00:07:43,220 \h It went through a number of comprehensive tests, including deploying the spacecraft's solar arrays . 89 00:07:43,220 --> 00:07:50,550 \h Technicians installed SDO's batteries and loaded fuel into the spacecraft before it was trucked to the launch complex. 90 00:07:50,550 --> 00:07:57,270 \h Spacecraft typically spend several months in launch integration and testing because the machines are designed to work in such a 91 00:07:57,270 --> 00:08:04,180 \h harsh place that technicians and scientists want to make sure everything is just right before launch. 92 00:08:04,180 --> 00:08:06,300 \h Dean Pesnell/SDO Project Scientist: The sun is our astrophysical laboratory. 93 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:11,700 \h This is the place where we look at the sun and stop calling it the sun. When we look at the sun, 94 00:08:11,700 --> 00:08:17,370 \h it's just an average star. When we look out in the universe and we plot star stuff up, 95 00:08:17,370 --> 00:08:22,220 \h the sun's always right in the middle. It's like the perfect average star. 96 00:08:22,220 --> 00:08:30,250 \h And if our average star has solar activity, then we should see activity on other stars, and indeed we do. 97 00:08:30,250 --> 00:08:36,350 \h Elizabeth Citrin/SDO Project Manager: You know, we need to know when a solar event is going to happen. We can save a life. 98 00:08:36,350 --> 00:08:40,260 \h Tiffany Nail/NASA's Launch Services Program: A day before the Solar Dynamics Observatory begins its mission, 99 00:08:40,260 --> 00:08:45,680 \h the excitement is reaching a crescendo here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.