nobody Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 MSNBC staff and news service reports Updated: 12:34 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2004DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah - A space capsule holding atoms collected from solar wind fell to a Rosen landing on Earth Wednesday after its parachute failed. A pair of helicopters helmed by stunt pilots had been ready to help snatch the refrigerator-sized Genesis capsule’s parachute with a hook during its descent. But there was no sign that the parachute opened, and video from the scene showed the 400-pound capsule buried in the ground at the military Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The capsule broke open on impact. It was not yet clear whether the $260 million Genesis mission was ruined. Choreographed return to Earth Genesis had been moving in tandem with Earth outside its magnetic shield on three orbits of the sun. It picked up speed rapidly as Earth’s gravitational pull brought it closer, reaching velocities of 25,000 mph or 11 kilometers per second. The capsule's descent was then slowed somewhat by atmospheric re-entry. That’s when the parachute and the helicopters were supposed to take over. Both Cliff Fleming, the lead helicopter pilot, and backup pilot Dan Rudert had years of experience as Hollywood stunt pilots, and they replicated the retrieval in dozens of practice runs over a five-year period. But because the parachute never opened, they never had a chance to snag the capsule. The fragile disks holding the atoms could be shattered. “We’re going to get the pieces out,” said Roger Wiens, a payload leader for Los Alamos National Laboratory. “It’s going to be a lot tougher to sort out the pieces of broken material.” Inspection ahead The capsule was to be packed up and eventually driven with a convoy of armed guards to Houston’s Johnson Space Center in a truck. If the package survived, the solar particles — a storehouse of 99 percent of all the material in our solar system — would be parceled out for analysis to the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Chicago’s Argonne National Lab. The Genesis mission, launched in 2001, marked the first time NASA has collected and returned any objects from farther than the moon, said Roy Haggard, Genesis’ flight operations chief and chief executive officer of Vertigo Inc., which designed the capture system. Together, the charged atoms captured over 884 days on the capsule’s disks of gold, sapphire, diamond and silicone are no bigger than a few grains of salt, but if the samples survived, that would be still be enough to help reconstruct the chemical origin of the sun and its family of planets, scientists say. This report includes information from The Associated Press and NBC News. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabattBlue Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Your username makes me laugh everytime I see one of your posts. "Look it's another post from nobody". Then I laugh more when I look at your avatar. I'll chalk it up to the simple things in life that are funny. To each their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRC Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Oops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PastaJoe Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 This is how it starts. An innocent experiment, then a container breaks open, releasing unknown particles into the air, and before you know it there's zombies running around. Start packing your survival gear, and remember you have to shoot them in the brain to kill them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurman's Helmet Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I want all data and materials related to the project Genesis Sincerely Khan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tux of Borg Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 Just a question... if this stuff is so valuable, why risk brining it back to earth. We dump a ton of money into an international space station/hotel. Can't they do the research up there? Or at least hold on to the capsule until we can send a shuttle up to retrieve the cargo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_BiB_ Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 LOL at Khan. Don't you just hate that when it happens? I'm just glad it wasn't named Andromeda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USMCBillsFan Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 This is how it starts. An innocent experiment, then a container breaks open, releasing unknown particles into the air, and before you know it there's zombies running around. Start packing your survival gear, and remember you have to shoot them in the brain to kill them. 22064[/snapback] Speaking of Zombies. Resident Evil part 2 starts this week. Milla is HOT!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndZoneCrew Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 fell to a Rosen landing on Earth Wednesday after its parachute failed. Is that Jay Rosen????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodnarb Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 that was no plane. ...oh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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