engineering

Sun Probe

Sun Probe is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sun Probe rather than just read about it. In short: "Sun Probe" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on 9 December 1965 on ATV Midlands as the 11th episode of Series One.

Key takeaways

Sun Probe belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sun Probe to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sun Probe from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Sun Probe" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Lane, it was first broadcast on 9 December 1965 on ATV Midlands as the 11th episode of Series One. It is the fourth episode in the official running order. Set in the 2060s, the series follows the exploits of International Rescue, an organisation that uses technologically advanced rescue vehicles to save human life. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's main vehicles: the Thunderbird machines. In "Sun Probe", Thunderbirds 2 and 3 are launched to save a crew of astronauts whose spacecraft is locked on a collision course with the Sun.

Plot At Cape Kennedy in Florida, Colonel Benson oversees the launch of Sun Probe: a three-man spacecraft designed to extract a piece of matter from the Sun. The craft lifts off safely and its one-week journey to the Sun passes without incident. As Sun Probe nears its target, International Rescue are watching live coverage of the mission from Tracy Island. Brains is absent from proceedings as he is busy perfecting his latest invention, an artificially-intelligent humanoid robot called Braman. In space, astronauts Harris, Asher and Camp successfully fire the collector probe through a solar prominence. However, as the probe returns with the acquired solar matter, the intensifying radiation causes Sun Probe's retrorockets to fail, trapping the spacecraft in a collision course with the Sun. On TV, Benson implores International Rescue to save the crew. Alan and Scott suggest remote-firing Sun Probe's rockets by radio beam from Thunderbird 3. Virgil points out that Thunderbird 2's transmitting capabilities are more powerful and it would be easier to send the signal from Earth. The team finally agree to launch a two-pronged rescue attempt. Alan, Scott and Tin-Tin blast off in Thunderbird 3 but their radio beam fails to reach Sun Probe, forcing them to move closer to the Sun than anticipated. Determining the best ground transmitting position to be in the Himalayas, Virgil and Brains take off in Thunderbird 2 carrying the Transmitter Truck. Landing on Mount Arkan, they align the truck's dish with Sun Probe but their signal falls short. Further attempts to transmit from Thunderbird 3 also end in failure. As both space crews become increasingly delirious from the heat, Alan tells Tin-Tin to overrun the power. The beam finally makes contact, triggering Sun Probe's retros and enabling it to reverse course for Earth. However, the Thunderbird 3 crew pass out before they can switch off the beam, draining the craft's power and preventing its own retros from firing. With news media now reporting that Thunderbird 3 is heading straight for the Sun, Jeff alerts Virgil and Brains, who hurry back to Thunderbird 2 to calculate the frequency needed to set off Thunderbird 3's retros. Opening a crate that was meant to hold International Rescue's mobile computer, they are dismayed to find that they have accidentally packed Braman instead. However, Braman is able to make the necessary calculations, allowing Virgil and Brains to reconfigure the beam. The retros fire and Thunderbird 3 returns to Earth. Back at base, the Tracys thank Brains and Braman for their efforts.

Regular voice cast

Production "Sun Probe" was the fourth episode of Thunderbirds to enter production. The story was devised by Gerry Anderson as a means of introducing Thunderbird 3, which had not been featured in any of the early scripts for the series. "Sun Probe" marks the first vocal contributions of Matt Zimmerman (the voice of Alan Tracy) to the series. Originally filmed as a 25-minute episode in late 1964, "Sun Probe" was lengthened to 50 minutes in January 1965 to satisfy APF's sponsor Lew Grade, who had been impressed with the pilot episode and ordered that all episodes of Thunderbirds be extended to fill a one-hour timeslot. Anderson, Alan Pattillo and Tony Barwick expanded Alan Fennell's original storyline by adding the subplot of Thunderbird 2's mission to Mount Arkan and the plot twists involving the failure of Thunderbird 3's retro-rockets and Virgil and Brains' discovery that they have taken Braman with them. The newly written material also included a scene in which Brains and Braman play chess on Tracy Island, the Tracys' late night discussion about how to tackle the Sun Probe rescue and another that sees Harris, Asher and Camp preparing for blast-off at Cape Kennedy. An additional scene with Brains and Braman was omitted. The new scenes were shot between the filming of "30 Minutes After Noon" and "The Impostors" and alongside that of "The Uninvited"; "Sun Probe" and "The Uninvited" were the first episodes of Thunderbirds to be extended. The re-shoots required the Thunderbird 3 and Cape Kennedy control room sets to be rebuilt from scratch. The chess scene was filmed in the Tracy Villa lounge instead of Brains' laboratory as the latter set was considered too detailed to recreate accurately. The Transmitter Truck model is a modified version of the explosives tractor seen in "End of the Road". Anderson was displeased with the scenes of Sun Probe approaching the Sun and instructed the episode's sound editor to amplify the accompanying sound effects. He believed that Barry Gray's musical score, composed partly of material originally recorded for Fireball XL5, compensated for the lack of action and greatly improved the episode. Some shots of the Sun Probe launch were duplicated for the opening scenes of "The Perils of Penelope", whose extending material was recorded back-to-back with "Sun Probe". The Thunderbird 3 launch sequence, devised by special effects director Derek Meddings, was recycled for "The Uninvited", "The Impostors", "Danger at Ocean Deep" and the series finale, "Give or Take a Million". The Braman puppet also appears in "Edge of Impact" and "30 Minutes After Noon" (in the latter episode, as the plutonium store guards). The 1969 film Doppelgänger, which Gerry and Sylvia Anderson produced and co-wrote, also features a spacecraft called Sun Probe.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sun Probe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sun Probe claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sun Probe before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sun Probe ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sun Probe

In research: Sun Probe appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sun Probe in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sun Probe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1965 British television episodes, Fiction about the Sun, Himalayas in fiction, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sun Probe outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sun Probe in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sun Probe means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sun Probe out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sun Probe in simple terms?

Why does Sun Probe matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sun Probe?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sun Probe.