That's how it's going to be on September 8. The photo is from the training of the helicopters to capture the capsule. NASA
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Note to those who accessed the news from external links: the spacecraft crashed.
Update from the day of the event in this link
Genesis is back
Dikla Oren
On the eighth of September a fireball will pierce the sky of the western United States. This is Genesis, which will return solar samples to Earth.
Meteors are unpredictable creatures. You can never know exactly when one will appear in the sky.
On Wednesday the eighth of September, however, the situation will be different. At exactly 8:52:46 a.m. PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) northwest of Bend, Oregon, United States, a fireball will appear in the sky: a white, fiery point of light, brighter than the planet Venus, will cross the blue morning sky.
This is no ordinary meteor. This is a spacecraft compartment, dropped by NASA's Genesis spacecraft. The space probe returns to Earth with priceless samples of the sun, and we know exactly the trajectory of the "meteor".
The fireball, traveling at 11 miles per second, will pass Bend and cross eastern Oregon, becoming brighter as it passes through the denser parts of the atmosphere. At 8:53:35 am PDT it will cross southwestern Idaho, and moments later will pass over northern Nevada, not far from the small town of Elko. Finally, at 8:54 am PDT, after being slowed almost to a stop by the spacecraft's parachute, the cell will disappear over Utah.
Observers up to 100 miles (160 km) from the atmospheric entry path will be able to see the cell glow "10 to 100 times brighter than Venus," says meteorologist Peter Jenniskens of NASA's Ames Research Center. For comparison, this is a brightness comparable to that of a banana moon. Jenniskens expects the fireball to reach its peak brightness (apparent brightness -9) when it is over Nevada.
For those within sight, he advises: "Unless you're right below the atmospheric entry path, the fireball will be low in the sky, so pay close attention to the horizon. Try using binoculars to increase the contrast between the clear blue sky and the fireball. Anyway, Do not look at the sun.” Concentrated sunlight can cause permanent blindness.
Jenniskens will observe atmospheric entry from the air along with 20 other scientists aboard the Air Force NKC-135. The plane is equipped with a battery of telescopes and spectrometers, looking through 20 windows, facing upwards. In past years, the NKC-135 studied the Leonid meteor shower. This time, "we plan to study the brown sheet wave at the front of the spacecraft compartment," Jenniskens explains.
Astrobiologists express interest in the return of Genesis, because asteroids the size of the meter environments - in the case the size of the space probe Genesis - hit the Earth several times a year and bring with them organic materials from space to our planet. Do these molecules survive the entry into the atmosphere? Can they react with gases in the atmosphere in the hot environment of the shock wave and create new substances of biological importance?
"We don't know," he says. "Capturing a real asteroid while entering the atmosphere is not an easy task." Genesis is a rare "meteor at your request" opportunity.
Watching the entry into the atmosphere, as exciting and fruitful as it may be, is only a prelude to the main event.
After the fireball subsides, a parachute will open, and the spacecraft's cabin will glide slowly toward the US Air Force's Utah Test and Training Area, located southwest of Salt Lake City.
There will be helicopters waiting for her that will try to capture her in the air, and this - in the article immediately below this paragraph - Ariel Eisenholler's article
NASA is eagerly waiting to collect the Genesis samples
25/8/2004
In a dramatic finale that marks the beginning of scientific research, NASA's Genesis spacecraft is scheduled to pass by NASA and drop a sample capsule for return, filled with particles from the sun that could eventually tell us more about the formation of the solar system.
"The Genesis mission - to capture part of the Sun and return it to Earth - is exactly in the spirit of NASA: a bold and inspiring mission that makes a substantial contribution to scientific knowledge," says Steven Brody, Acting Director of the Genesis Mission Program At NASA headquarters, Washington. On September 8, 2004 the drama will lighten in the skies of central Utah when the spacecraft's return sample capsule will be captured in mid-air by a helicopter. The meeting will take place at the test and training complex of the US Army in Utah, southwest of Salt Lake City.
"What a prize Genesis will be," says Genesis mission principal investigator Dr. Don Burnett of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "Our spacecraft has recorded almost 27 months beyond the moon's orbit, collecting atoms from the sun. Using them, we can determine what the sun is made of for the purposes of planetary science, and all this with a level of precision that has never been seen before."
The prize Barnett and his friends are looking for are hexagon-shaped stickers made of silicon (titanium), gold, sapphire, diamond and other materials that served as a celestial prison for the samples of solar wind particles. These stickers have been exposed to the deep space environment for over 26 months and are well stored in the return capsule. If the capsule falls all the way down, some of them may crack or break completely from their chassis. That's why there is the aerial capture mission by helicopters, with crew members that include people who have performed helicopter stunts for Hollywood.
"These guys have flown some of the biggest Hollywood movies," says Don Sweetnam, Genesis Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "But this time the Genesis capsule will be the star."
The Genesis capsule – carrying the agency's first sample returned since the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972, and the first sample of material collected beyond lunar orbit – will enter the NASA atmosphere at 09:55 a.m. Mountain time. 2 minutes and 7 seconds after entering the atmosphere, while still flying at supersonic speed, the capsule will deploy an anchor parachute, at an altitude of 33 km (108,000 feet). 6 minutes later the main parachute, in the shape of an airplane wing, will be deployed at an altitude of 6.1 km (20,000 feet). Below will be waiting two helicopters, with their flight crews, waiting for their chance to capture a piece of the sun.
"Each helicopter will have a crew of three people," says Roy Haggard, chief executive officer of Vertigo Corporation and director of flight operations for the main helicopter. “The main helicopter will deploy an 18-and-a-half-foot (5.6-meter) pole with what can best be described as a very large space-age fishing hook. When we make the approach we want the helicopter skids to be about 8 feet (2.4 meters) above the wing shaped chute. If for any reason the capture attempt is unsuccessful, the other helicopter will be 1,000 feet (304 meters) behind us preparing for its approach attempt. We estimate that we will have 5 opportunities to achieve capture.”
The helicopter that succeeds in making a capture will carry the sample container to a clean room at Michael Airfield in the US Army's Dugway underground testing facilities, where the scientists await their cosmic prize. The samples will then be transferred to a special laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they will be preserved and examined by scientists in the years to come.
“I understand that a big part of it is how we get Genesis back,” adds Barnett, “but for me the excitement will really begin when scientists from all over the world receive the samples for their research. It will be something.”
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a department at the California Institute of Technology, manages the Genesis mission for NASA's Space Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA's Johnson Space Center contributed to the development of the Genesis payload (part of an aircraft or ship's cargo that brings in profits) and Johnson Space Center will oversee the assistance and analysis of the samples as well as the allocation of the samples.
Genesis home page and more information about the mission on the NASA website
For information on the NASA website
The solar knower
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