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Crashed Spacecraft Yields Data on Solar Wind
Hugh Pickens writes "After the Genesis mission spent 27 months in space gathering tiny samples from different types of solar wind, Hollywood stunt pilots swooped in with a helicopter to catch the falling capsule when it returned to earth. Unfortunately the spacecraft's parachute did not open, and the spacecraft ploughed a hole into the desert. Now scientists are starting to recover data from the salvageable pieces of Genesis. Nature Magazine reports that an analysis of isotopes of neon and argon shows that the elements of main interest to the researchers have the same isotopic signature in the solar wind as in the Sun itself. Because dirt contains relatively little neon and argon, the current Science study wasn't affected too much by contamination and the the team remains hopeful that they will be able to get results on oxygen and nitrogen isotopes from the mission."
Surely it picked up alien spores that are now loose in our deserts. Isn't this how many bad sci-fi movies begin?!
No, accelerometer mounted in the wrong orientation
i remember reading the thread on fark and laughing so hard, that i had tears running down my face...
scroll halfway down - it's comedy in realtime
Genesis was no failure. Dr. Marcus was indeed very proud over it.
NASA thought they understood Murphy's Law correctly - that's why they delibertely installed the parachute backwards.