• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

A Payload of knowledgeThe Genesis Spacecraft Crashed, but Some of Its Solar Cargo Survived.

Posted on: Monday, 20 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

The reality of the Genesis spacecraft slamming into the Utah desert at 200 mph was disheartening, to say the least. But luck was with NASA: Scientists believe that the payload of atoms sifted from the solar wind is, in part at least, salvageable.

The 420-pound spacecraft, the cornerstone of a $264 million mission, buzzed around the solar system collecting minutia for more than two years. The craft performed its job admirably.

Getting back to Earth Sept. 8, though, was another story: Its two parachutes failed to pop, meaning that Hollywood stunt pilots couldn't grab it in midair as planned, leading to the sandy smash- up.

Many of the 350 palm-sized silicon wafers that held solar samples were broken, NASA reported. But some were intact, scientists said, and they didn't appear to have been irretrievably contaminated during the crash. They will be opened over the next few months under special conditions so that any contaminants from the crash are eliminated.

The payload was no bigger than a few grains of salt. But it was made up of billions of charged atoms that should give scientists a window into the past, at the time 4.5 billion years ago when the sun and planets coalesced from formless swirls of gas and dust.

Those tiny specks, far smaller than any grain of sand, may give mankind deeper insight into the very origins of the solar system that sustains us. How fortunate that all that wasn't lost in the Utah desert.

More News in this Category