Posted on 09/10/2004 8:50:39 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SALT LAKE CITY - NASA (news - web sites) scientists said Friday they have recovered some critical pieces of the Genesis space capsule intact and are optimistic the wreckage will yield valuable information about the origins of the solar system.
"We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our science goals," said physicist Roger C. Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The Genesis capsule spent 2 1/2 years gathering solar atoms, but crashed while returning to Earth on Wednesday, slamming into the ground at nearly 200 mph after its parachutes failed to open. It cracked open like a clamshell, and badly damaged an inner canister containing disks that collected the atoms.
Scientists have been peering inside the canister with flashlights and mirrors. They had feared the 350 palm-sized wafers that make up the disks would shatter like glass in the crash, and many of them did.
But they were surprised to find some wafers fully intact, meaning the $264 million mission may not have been a total loss.
Scientists have pulled out the mangled inner canister from the capsule, and now are working to pry the canister open all the way. The disks inside were jammed together by the impact of the crash and were so tightly packed that it took scientists a full day to begin peeling them back for an inspection.
"We're going to be doing some sawing and some snipping," said Don Sevilla, Genesis payload manager for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This is something that's going to take months."
All together, the capsule held billions of charged atoms a total haul no bigger than a few grains of salt that could explain how the sun was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists said the wafers do not have to be fully intact to extract atoms from their shattered pieces.
NASA is still investigating why the parachutes did not open. Engineers are focusing on electronic controls or sensors that were supposed to trigger explosives that release the chutes.
Helicopters flown by Hollywood stunt pilots were supposed to grab Genesis' parachute with a hook almost a mile above the desert and lower the capsule gently to the ground. But they never had a chance to grab the out-of-control capsule.
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On the Net:
http://www.genesismission.org
Insert sophmoric joke about "genesis parts" here.
They never missed in practice.. Too bad the chute failed to open.
A private company could have done this much cheaper!
I guess we missed a chance to outsource this mission to China or India, Next time . ;-)
It's Spock. He's back from the dead.
A later report confirmed that those few grains were exactly like sand from the Utah desert...
I thought the spy satellite programs used airplanes that were able to scoop up the probe.
I know these guys who were going to catch this thing. They have been practicing for two years to catch this satellite. They had excellent pilots, equipment, and training. The whole plan relied on a droge chute and then an airfoil chute deploying on the capsule. When the chute did not deploy, there was nothing anyone could do. It is a shame that the media folks made it sound so chessy, but that's is what they are good at isn't it?
Let's hope they get their keys straight before they open it.
(This was my first sci-fi book I read. Almost my last...)
I just wonder why a shuttle mission didn't grab the satellite/Genesis probe with it's arm and large doors? It would seem a lot better than a re-entry and catch me if you can chase copters?
I miss Dr.Who. I used to watch it religiously in the 80's. Can't get it here in Wisconsin.
You might want to tell the NRO how foolish they were to run the "Corona" project the same way. I'm sure they'll be amused.
Since the Hollymedia is run by liberals, and liberals hate science, you'll want to get your science reporting from the Internet.
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