The single camera instrument, known as the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, or WISPR, was not designed to look directly at the sun, which is very bright, especially at close distances. Instead, WISPR is symmetric to the side, at which charged particles known as the solar wind are blasting off the sun at a speed of one million miles per hour.
Before launching the Parker Solar Probe in 2018, Dr. Glaze and Dr. Fox, who was then the project scientist for the mission, discussed the possibility of operating the instruments during Venus flybys. But it wasn’t until after launch that confirmed plans were made and the Parker Space Probe was running smoothly.
“This was only due to safety concerns,” Dr. Fox said. “Until you get into orbit, you don’t really know how to fly your spacecraft.”
Designed to capture faint solar wind particles, WISPR has been shown to be adept at bringing out the faint glow on the night side of Venus.
It took a little trial and error to find out. In July 2020, on the first flight where the camera was turned on, scientists discovered that if any part of the day side of Venus was in the field of view, the image turned out to be very overexposed.
“We didn’t really know what we were doing,” Dr. Wood said. “We quickly learned that this results in a completely unusable image.”