Genesis probe landing disappoints viewers at SDL
The space capsule Genesis that was bringing to Earth solar particles, crashed Wednesday morning into the Utah Test and Training Range, and a live NASA feed to the Space Dynamics Lab allowed many local citizens and scientists to watch.
At 9:52 a.m. the capsule entered the atmosphere, making impact at 193 miles per hour and creating a hole in the ground equal to 50 percent of its diameter.
A parachute that was supposed to weaken the fall of the capsule failed to deploy, and two helicopters that were at the site of the reentry to assist the capsule safely to the ground failed their tasks as well.
The capsule is made mainly of gold, silicon, sapphire and diamond.
Harry Ames, from SDL, said the capsule works like fly paper with particles from around the sun sticking to collection plates.
Ames said the objective of the capsule was to bring back solar material for research.
The spacecraft was sent to space more than three years ago, in August 2001 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the total cost for the project was $264 million.
NASA said on its official Web site (www.nasa.gov), no one knows what caused the problem so far. According to the Space Agency, the helicopters, flown by Hollywood stunt pilots, were in the right position and proceeded as practiced 17 previous times.
The helicopters were supposed to help the capsule to reach the soil since the parachute alone was not enough to prevent the material from being damaged.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, in an official announcement, said, “We’re (NASA) encouraged by the news out of Utah, despite the hard impact landing of the Genesis Sample Return capsule.
“The spacecraft was designed in a way to give us the best chance at salvaging the valuable science payload should we suffer a landing like the one we witnessed today.”
Ames said chances are that most the material collected from the solar wind will provide important data for study.
This material will help scientists understand the beginning of our solar system. Ames said the sun is the main source of material for all the planets around and by studying those scientists could learn the history of the solar system.
Even though Utah State University is not directly connected to the Genesis project, Ames said the SDL staff hopes everything goes well because NASA and USU are partners in other projects.
“We sincerely wish that NASA is successful in everything they do,” he said. “The reason why we are showing the landing here is because the Space Dynamics Laboratory is considered the space center of Utah.”
When Genesis hit the ground nobody seemed to believe what had occurred. For those who watched NASA TV during the procedure, it was clear that not even the most pessimistic scientist in the agency was prepared for the probe’s landing. The image of the crashed aircraft was on screen for a few minutes and the room was completely silent.
Robert Horing and his 8-year-old son Jacob were watching the transmission from the SDL auditorium
“I brought my kid today because I thought that was going to be a historical moment and I wanted him to see with his own eyes,” Horing said.
For more information go to NASA’s Web site www.nasa.gov.
-anacarolinabessa@hotmail.com