The Insane Engineering of the Parker Solar Probe

The first 7:53 of this video is all about orbital mechanics - which is interesting, I'll grantcha, but isn't the focus of this blog.

If orbital mechanics is your jam, go play some Kerbel and get back when you reach an expolanet.

We're here to learn about material science, and that's where the video takes a big turn at about 7:55, first exploring the carbon foam composite of the solar shield, itself, and the ceramic, reflective paint on its sun-side.

Then - at 9:15 - we get into the solar probe cup and its measurements of the solar wind. The big issue there is that the cup can't hide behind that carbon-carbon composite shield. It has to survive nakedly in the solar wind at 1400 degrees C which sort of limits the acceptable materials. The conductive mesh is made of acid-etched tungsten, and the wires leading to and from the mesh are a niobium alloy called niobium C-103 (89% Nb, 10% Hf, and 1% Ti) with sapphire bead insulation...you know, as is tradition.

Space is frickin' wild, man.

And that doesn't even get into how we tested those materials - a whole other journey that's covered after 13:55 in the video.

Searching for Starlite

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I stumbled upon - thanks to YouTube's recommendation algorithms - the video below...




...which references a material named starlite and claims to have reproduced something akin to starlite.

But I didn't know what starlite was...and didn't know why the egg test was a big deal.

So I went looking, and it turns out lots of people are looking for starlite.

And they've been looking for a few years...(from wikipedia)

Starlite is a material claimed to be able to withstand and insulate from extreme heat. It was invented by British amateur chemist and hairdresser Maurice Ward during the 1970s and 1980s, and received significant publicity after coverage of the material aired in 1990 on the BBC science and technology show Tomorrow's World. The name Starlite was coined by Ward's granddaughter Kimberly. 

Despite interest from NASA and other major technological companies, Ward, who died in 2011, never revealed the composition of Starlite, which is still unknown. He once mentioned that his close family knows the fabrication process, but after his death neither his wife nor any of his four daughters have produced any sample to demonstrate that they know the process.

From historic mysteries

According to the New Scientist, Ward negotiated with several leading organizations. Boeing, NASA, and the British Department of Defence all held talks with Ward. It seemed Ward was more concerned that he might not be able to protect himself in a litigation battle. He did maintain the utmost faith in Starlite. However, trying to broker the right deal for himself gave him the unwanted reputation as an unreliable negotiator. Supposedly, he asked for a £1 million one day but upped that price tenfold the following day.