Video of
the Crash
Scientists and engineers
are optimistic after having peeked inside the Genesis space capsule, which brought
back bits of the Sun but crashed into the Utah desert Wednesday.
The craft was supposed to
deploy a parachute and be retrieved in the air by a helicopter. Instead it broke
apart on impact. Amazingly, scientists say, much of the contents -- microscopic
particles that once rode the solar wind and are now embedded on shattered collector
plates -- should be salvageable.
In a teleconference with
reporters today, mission officials said contamination is their greatest worry,
since desert dirt entered the capsule. They need to retrieve the Sun samples
in pristine form. The goal is to learn more about the Sun's composition and
the history of the solar system and planet formation.
The team might seek advice
on handling the wafer-thin collector devices from the semiconductor industry,
said Don Burnett, Genesis principal investigator from the California Institute
of Technology.
Surprise
"We should be surprised
that we have anything," said Don Sevilla, Genesis payload recovery leader at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Sevilla said experts are
"peeling back the layers of the onion," using a flashlight and a small mirror
on a stick to explore inside the fractured, garbage-can-sized capsule. A prime
particle-gathering device "appears intact," he said, and another appears to
be "in very good condition."
But pieces of the fragile
collectors are "strewn about the canister," so scientists are being very methodical
about extracting them.
"It is amazing given the
amount of breach in the canister just how clean it is inside" Sevilla said.
"We're not talking about great clods of dirt."
No timetable has been created
for moving the science samples from a Utah facility to a NASA center for ultimate
study. Sevilla said engineers are still busy collecting tools to do unexpected
"sawing and snipping" that will take place over the weekend.
Genesis, which launched
in 2001, carries a $264 million price tag.
The scientists said they
were demoralized when they first saw the craft stuck more than halfway into
the desert floor. Attitudes have changed.
"The science team is really
excited," said Roger Wiens, flight payload leader from the Los Alamos National
Laboratory. Wiens expects to "meet many if not all" of the mission's initial
goals.
The investigation
Meanwhile, Sevilla
said three pyrotechnic devices that were supposed to deploy the parachute system
failed to trigger as planned. They have been "safed" to allow study
of the capsule.
"None had been fired," he said. "This points to a command and control
problem," not to any failure of the parachutes themselves.
NASA also announced today that Michael
Ryschkewitsch, director of the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, would lead the Genesis Mishap Investigation
Board (MIB) in an effort to determine the exact cause of the disaster. The group
is due to report back in mid-November.
The optimistic assessment
led one reporter to ask if future sample-return missions might forego the theatrics
of using Hollywood stunt pilots to make mid-air retrievals of capsules, and
instead simply design the shells to survive a freefall.
"The lessons from this one
will affect all future sample returns," said Gentry Lee, a JPL engineer.
Genesis Capsule Crash Video
Shows the final moments of the Genesis sample-return capsule spinning out
of control and crashing into Earth on Sept. 8, 2004.
Credit: NASA TV |
 A
member of the Genesis Sample Return team, shown in this image taken from
video, looks at the capsule after it fell to Earth without deploying its
parachute Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004. Click
to enlarge
Credit: AP Photo/NASA/JPL. |
 Spectators
and media watch the Genesis Sample Return capsule fall to earth on television
screens from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Click
to enlarge
Credit: AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac. |
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