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NASA Genesis Reentry Visible from Oregon to Utah
An anonymous reader writes "The Genesis spacecraft will be visible as an artificial meteor starting in early morning over Oregon until its spectacular helicopter capture above the Utah desert (11 AM EST in the US). Although today's reentry simulates meteor physics, the valuable payload for Genesis is a billion billion atoms on semiconductor wafers now showered with solar wind particles. Unlike the Russian space program, few American capsules have tried overland reentries until the two extraterrestrial sample return missions, Genesis today and Stardust in 2006." Update: 09/08 16:04 GMT by T : RossCarlson writes "Stuck at work today and can't watch Nasa capture the Genesis probe live on TV? You can stream it in both Windows Media and Real (Video | Audio) formats from Nasa TV. Looks like the estimated capture time is around 10:10 a.m. PST. I for one can't wait to see them capture it!"
When I was doing a project with NASA several months ago, I got to see the lab that they had set up preparing for the Genesis payload. It was some pretty impressive stuff.
:)
Best of luck to the helicoptor pilots, and to the NASA scientists! Hopefully we'll be reading about some good new science information about the sun and the solar wind soon.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
w00t. I'm trolling this morning, aren't I?
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
""The 450-pound capsule, moving 25,000 miles per hour, carries with it the same kinetic energy as a four-and-a-half-million pound freight train at 80 miles an hour,"
Spiderman stopped a train in
Perhaps he could do the same here? I wonder what kind of pay packet these stunt guys are on. We want you to catch this little ball of sunshine rays, won't be too hard.
I don't think 'freight train' was a term used in the job description...
four-and-a-half-million pounds? that is 2,250 tons
Go spidey! (and good luck to the dudes, hope they get home safely!)
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first posting ladidada
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Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
What if Genesis were used on a planet that already had life?
Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time. According to myth, the Earth was created in 6 days. Now, watch out. Here comes Genesis. We'll do it for you in 6 minutes.
"Unlike the Russian space program, few American capsules have tried overland reentries until the two extraterrestrial sample return missions, Genesis today and Stardust in 2006.
The early KH-1 spy satelites ejected film canisters which would reenter and be caught by aircraft.
http://www.danshistory.com/spysats.shtml#corona
Not the same as a whole sat, but still pretty impressive for 1960.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
It's worth noting that overland collection happened in the US for catching film canisters from spy satellites:
I suspect one of the reasons the Russians focussed so much on overland catches is that they don't have many large bodies of water convenient to viable spaceport land. It's more an issue of necessity and convenience than expertise.
-Adam
Cragen
i don;t belive they wanted to do that...
no shoot opened...
it is half buried in the ground.
Just checked in with the Spaceflight Now Mission Status Center. The chute failed to deploy, and the capsule is "half-buried" in the Utah desert floor. Looks intact, but then, so did my Fiat after I wrecked it as a teenager.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
they go: its flipping end over end.. and its not deplyed its parachute yet.. which is what we expect.. 10 secs later hit the ground at 100mph..
It held together, but it's half-embedded in the ground.
-T
They must be bumming now. We just watched it hit the ground, and that was awesome, and by awesome I mean totaly sweet.
... for nothing. Now the helicopters just look silly, flying around with their little hooks.
it just crashed into earth. chute didn't open. that sux.
i bet the uk beagle team are having a laugh right about now...
...that Colin Pillinger and the rest of the Beagle team have smug smiles on their faces now.
Oh dear. Never mind, eh?
I still waiting the parachute to pop out in a road runner style then an anvil to fall on top of it..
The video shows a nice little crater, but they are saying something went wrong, so it may not be the pilot's fault...
-Adam
On the plus side it missed the helicopters...... But bad news, although not a total disaster I suspect. As the news develops we will know more.
It dug a big hole in the ground...they had no chance to catch it as the chute did not deploy. Curiously though, a "black oily substance" was seen leaking out of the capsule.
The freaking shute didn't open... It went splat right into the desert sand!
Genesis left a small crater.
Interestingly, when I was watching this live over the internet, they appeared to go to a picture of the capsule underneath a canopy, in a very grainy b/w sequence that lasted just a few seconds, then they switched to another camera, and later said they didn't yet have visual on any chutes.
Too bad I don't have cable, I'd have loved to have this on my Replay, to show you some caps.
BTW, I did catch the LAT/LON, they said it was 40 07 40 and 113 30 29, that would actually show up in China. If you say -113 instead of +113, you get a location in the Deseret Test Center. Here's a Mapquest map. They also said it was "just north of the road." Of course, they could have accidentally or deliberately been a bit off on their coordinates, but this is what they said.
Get off my launchpad!
Looks like the US space program has lost the ability to do un-manned re-entries, and not just manned ones.
Another sad day, but another sign of the decline of the american space program.
-- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
Well, if the fact that it crashed wasnt bad enough, now the ground crews are being alerted that live mortar may be on board which should have exploded to release the parachute.
The crews checked for reside, none found in quick scans. Now they'll have to call in a bomb expert to make sure its safe.
Basically, this all means that some poor soul is really getting his behind chewed out in his boss's office at nasa.
The collection wafers may still be recoverable, but perhaps broken and jumbled by the crash.
Maybe NASA should try to have a couple more success stories.
I am sick and tired of these catastrophic mission failures. Even counting the success of the recent Mars rover missions, NASA's recent record is still shameful considering their very large budget.
I am sick of hearing NASA's poor-mouthing when they are getting 0.2% of the GDP! With results like today's, I am going to recommend to my congressperson to cut NASA's budget, not increase it, until they show that they aren't wasting my tax money.
I am not sure whether this actually *is* redundant, or wether parent is worried about the health of the pilot *inside* the genesis capsule. Given that this little green man hit the ground at 100+MPH i dont think (s)he'll be answering to anyone down here.