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Genesis: Data in good condition
Oxidation writes "Space.com is reporting that the Genesis satellite crash isn't as bad as it appeared to be in the first place. Furthermore, a prime particle-gathering device "appears intact" states Don Sevilla. (Genesis payload recovery leader at NASA's JPL)"
From the beginning I didn't think this was quite as bad as people had feared. The worse case scenerio is that we can only detect particles that are unique to the study area.
No matter how much dirt you pour into that system, any particles that are not common on earth would still be a very interesting finding!
"It is amazing given the amount of breach in the canister just how clean it is inside" Sevilla said. "We're not talking about great clods of dirt."
As much as they were overestimating the initial amount of damage, I think they are underestimating now. No matter how little amount of dust has entered into that system, it still has contamination. Contamination is like pregnancy. Either it is, or it isn't. "Genesis brought back a tiny sampling of the raw material of the Sun, a sample weighing no more than a few grains of salt." Likely many particles that were captured in space are similiar the particles here on earth; however, with the contamination I am not sure how you can seperate the true origin of the particles... especially when such small amounts are involved. Earth dust >>> sun dust.
Can you tell which of these are covered with space particles and which are covered with space dirt?
I saw the crash live, and figured that with how delicate all of the collectors were being made out to be by the folks doing the reporting, that it would be a near-total loss.
It's good to see that at least some of my tax dollars went into some worst-case scenario planning. =)
Where can we bet on the fate of Genesis' twin Stardust, and what are the odds the same thing will happen to it?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
This suggests that it might be cheaper and more reliable to add a bit more shock absorbency and not bother with parachutes and pyrotechnic devices that can go wrong.
No. That's like saying a parking lot is too contaminated with leaves to do a proper study of car color.
OK, maybe one of you lab rats can answer this but...
Call me irresponsible, but this guy went to all the effort to cover himself, then he leans over WITHOUT A MASK to work on a plate full of DUST!
I need a mask!
Frank W. Miller
Hey, if the data was salvagable from the wreck *without* parachutes and dangerous stunt piloting of helecopters, why bother installing them on future missions? Just crash the pod in the desert .. think of the money saved on explosive bolts, parachutes, inflatable cushions .. and hey sell the crash on TV to sponsors, or put it on Letterman.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Who is going to verify their findings? What if this is all just some smoke and mirror news stories now so we all thing "yea they'll get something for the $260 million spent" only to never ever hear about it again.
Before the thing even entered the atmosphere we had JPLers saying ANY crash would destroy the experiments. Well we got 200+ mph into the earth, split open, dust everywhere, broken little bits but everything is going to be A OK.
There's a difference between "we can get useful scientific information from it" and "A-OK".
There's also a difference between dust and other contaminants deposited at low speed and what's mostly monatomic gas implanted at high speed (look up "ion implantation" in a semiconductor fabrication glossary for further discussion of this).
Processing will get a lot more difficult, as they have a bucketful of dust-contaminated shards instead of nice, organized, uncontaminated collection plates, but it's far from impossible.
Just not an option the mission team would have chosen if it could possibly be avoided.
Compared to iraq, Id say this is an extremely good return on investment.
The occupation of iraq costs the US roughly 4 billion a *month*. That means the 250 million that this mission costs, would purchase approximatly 42 hours of occupation. *42 hours*.
250 million doesnt seem so bad now does it? Esspesially since it seems that some valuable data will still be recoved.
As a NASA Employee I gotta say that the average NASA employee probably has half as many brain cells as the average american . . .
It's still part of the Government you know.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
It may surprise you to know that outside the US, many countries teach relatively advanced science, including physics, in what we call elementary school. (By relatively advanced, I mean they may know that the vertical position of a projectile t seconds after launch is y0+v0*t-(10 m/s/s)*t^2 though who knows - depending on the country, they may know a good deal more than that.)
For that matter, we do learn cheesy physics that young even here, but it tends to be in a very pop, sound-bitey way. For example, "electricity follows the past of least resistance" or Feynman's example of "energy makes it go!" neither of which are strictly true, but sound nicer than the truth.