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Life's Secrets From A Comet's Tail
An anonymous reader wrote to mention a Guardian report on the return trip of the Stardust mission, which has snatched material from the tail of a passing comet. From the article: "Scientists are particularly interested in comets because they believe they are rubble left over from making the solar system, which later played a profound role in the development of Earth. They probably delivered most of the water for Earth's oceans and bombarded our planet with complex organic compounds that could have been crucial to the evolution of life here. For these reasons, researchers have sought a source of comet molecules and designed Stardust to provide it." Wow, this thing has been out there a long time. When I Googled to make sure this wasn't a dupe, I ran across CmdrTaco's post about the Stardust probe entering the comet's tail - almost exactly two years ago.
Almost. The Genesis probe was to collect solar wind particles, and had no actual chute failure. What had happened was that accelerometers designed to trigger the chutes once the unit had reached the appropriate speed were installed backwards.
As is to be expected in this situation, the probe wasn't flying backwards when it needed to trigger the chutes and subsequently it hit the desert with a rather satisfying thud.
This mission to the comet's tail is very, very similar with an almost identical 'landing' planned. Lets hope the same guy didn't fit components on both.
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
This article isn't a dupe; its a followup.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/comet3d.html -
Stardust's mission has gone relatively smoothly- I've been checking in every few months because I can't help but be impressed by scale of this experiment. And this time, they ever thought to put a parachute in the return capsule, unlike that other probe which captured solar wind particles, then smashed into the desert floor when the stunt 'copters didn't make the catch. (The sun must've been in their eyes...) The comet pass-through two years ago might have been overshadowed by the Mars Rover(s) story- one of 'em landed just around the same time as Stardust's Wild 2 encounter.
I came, I saw, I left. It looked better in the brochure.