I was there in the hangar at Dugway Proving Grounds as we watched the
capsule embed itself in the dry lakebed. My girlfriend works on the Genesis
project at JPL and I was along as her guest.
It was a terribly sad moment, as you can imagine, and a long, sad
afternoon. Through my girlfriend, I had met some of the key engineers and
scientists involved. I saw that the project manager was on the verge of
tears as he tried to answer reporters' questions about what had gone wrong.
One scientist had been supporting the idea for 14 years, I believe he said,
and some of the engineers had lived it with three or more years.
I work in publishing for the IEEE Computer Society. Sometimes, one of the
magazines I help launch doesn't do as we hoped, so over a period of several
months, we get the bad news. That's tough enough, but it must be really
wrenching to see your dreams come crashing down in a matter of seconds.
(Incidentally, I understand that the Stardust material would withstand the
kind of impact that shattered the silicon and germanium wafers in Genesis
to smithereens. The Stardust material is an almost lighter-than-air foam. I
forget the name, but I got to hold a piece when my 10-year-old daughter and
I went to JPL's open house this summer.)
-- Dick
Gary McMurtry
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
t.hawaii.edu> To
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] cc
com
Subject
Re: the latest splat
09/09/2004 10:51
AM
Please respond to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
They keep showing that crash over and over again on TV. My 6-year
old asked if there were people inside, so I said "No, but I'm sure
there are NASA engineers that could fit inside right now"!
Gary
>Word is, it was a problem with the explosive-driven chute release system.
>Maybe it just got too hot from the sun, and the chemistry of the explosive
>went bad somehow. If it's the same chute system on Stardust, and
>if it's not related to solar proximity - well, somehow I don't think
>Sean O'Keefe is going to scramble a robotic mission to save Stardust. ;-)
>
>A NASA old-timer going back to well before it was NASA
>(Max Faget, I think) said something smart once: it's really hard to make
>something work only from the laws of chemistry and physics, but if you
>can, you generally should. Ablative shielding, for example, is not
>mechanical
>at all. But something like a two-stage parachute system, designed
>to trigger on reentry and not before, is mechanically and electronically
>complex. Yet it's hard to imagine anything simpler that would give
>you a decently low rate of descent in the lower atmosphere. I think the
>Russians lost a couple cosmonauts to chute system failure.
>
>-michael turner
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Joe Latrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 6:51 AM
>Subject: Re: Latest News from the Astrobiology Magazine
>
>
>>
>> Yeah, but what of Stardust? It uses the same recovery technique. I
>> sense a lot of engineers scrambling right about now.
>>
>> Joe L.
>>
>> Reeve, Jack W. wrote:
>>
>> > Sorry Larry, et al. Genesis tunneled into the desert sand unimpeded
by
>> > a parachute. It's a mess.
>> >
>> > *Jack W. Reeve*
>> >
>> > **-----Original Message-----
>> > *From:* LARRY KLAES [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > *Sent:* Wednesday 08 September 2004 16:11
>> > *To:* setipublic
>> > *Cc:* BioAstro; europa
>> > *Subject:* Fw: Latest News from the Astrobiology Magazine
>> >
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > *From:* Astrobiology Magazine <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> > *To:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> > *Sent:* Wednesday, September 08, 2004 5:33 AM
>> > *Subject:* Latest News from the Astrobiology Magazine
>> >
>> >
>> > Time to Collect the Corona
>> > http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1183.html
>> >
>> > If all goes as planned, the sample capsule from the Genesis
spacecraft
>> > will be returning to Earth on Wednesday morning. The spacecraft has
>> > spent the past two years collecting the solar wind.
>> >
>> > Rebuilding the Biggest Building
>> > http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1182.html
>> >
>> > One of the world's largest buildings sustained damage over the
weekend
>> > as hurricane Frances pounded a natural scar on the face of a manmade
>> > wonder. Florida's Space Coast has witnessed many launches designed
>> > specifically to study and predict the damaging effects of
>> > hurricanes--one of the few storms so large that it can best be viewed
>> > from orbit.
>> >
>> > Death Star Lookalike
>> > http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1181.html
>> >
>> > Saturn's satellite, Mimas, can be imaged from afar and imagined up
>> > close, but its striking resemblance to the fictional Death Star from
>> > Star Wars gives the most dramatic view of its violent past.
>> >
>> > Giving Up the Galactic Ghost
>> > http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1180.html
>> >
>> > While a terrestrial view of a galaxy might disguise the turbulent,
>> > changing mergers that fuel their formation, a famous cluster called
>> > Stephan's Quintet shows that seemingly immutable stars are always in
>flux.
>> >
>> > Wednesday, September 08
>> >
>> > ------------------------
>> > For more astrobiology news, visit http://www.astrobio.net
>> >
>> > To unsubscribe, send subject UNSUBSCRIBE to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> ==
>> You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
> >
>
>==
>You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
==
You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
==
You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
