Any species that reaches the stars is drawn at its fingertips. Probably more than once.
A NASA post on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website is an iconic reminder of the tragedy that occurred in our spacefaring history.
“After being tracked by radar and chased by a helicopter, the flying spacecraft crashed into the Utah desert from outer space crash,” the photo description posted in November 2018 states, although NASA is not hinting at an alien visit here.
The banged-up dish, half buried in the desert sand, was actually the return capsule of the Genesis spacecraft. And not to be touched in such a ruthless way.
Launched on August 8, 2001, the Genesis mission was an ambitious attempt by the spacecraft agency to send spacecraft into our home star’s solar wind, collect samples, and return them to Earth.
By gathering information about the formation of charged particles flowing from the sun’s corona, the researchers hoped to accurately determine the composition of the star and learn more about the surrounding elements when forming the planets in the solar system.
To bring us solar wind samples, the Genesis craft was equipped with a sample return capsule containing a compartment of solar wind material, collected by the spacecraft after spending two years around Laring Point 1 – a place of gravitational space from Earth and the Sun. Definitely balanced.
The craft captured the solar wind by folding a series of collector arrays, each filled with high-purity materials such as aluminum, sapphire, silicone and gold.
The artist folded out the rendering of the spacecraft with its array. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
“The material we use in the Genesis Collector array must be physically strong enough to start without breaking; retain the sample when heated by the sun during storage; and be as pure as we can analyze solar wind elements after Earth-return Should.
Five days later, the sample capsule and its precious array crashed to the ground in Utah at a speed of 310 km / h (193 mph).
(USAF 388th Range Square., Genesis Mission, NASA)
That was different than what was going to happen – after re-entering the atmosphere, 127 seconds later, the mortar on the capsule would blow, releasing the initial parachute for descending stability and stability.
After that, the main parachute was inflated, providing the capsule with weakness in the Utah test and training range.
In the crash photo, you can see the helicopter – it was hovering nearby, the capsule was ready to pull mid-air and take it straight to the cleanroom to avoid contamination of the samples.
None of them are parachute deployed.
After a thorough investigation, the metal end of the error pencil was rarely found in the set of sensors. They were installed at the back.
These small devices were supposed to detect an increasing G-force as the capsule sank to the ground, and stimulated parachute deployment.
As you can imagine, the crash caused extensive damage, shattered many arrays and contaminated the precious cargo inside.
Once the sample capsule was recovered from the heart-sinking site of his death, the project team decided to recover anything that could still be recovered and studied.
Karen McNamara, one of the Genesis team, oversees the damage to the capsule. (NASA)
Thankfully, even after such a dramatic arrival of the sample capsule, the Genesis mission was not completely ruined. Some hard collector material survived, and researchers cleaned the surfaces without disturbing the solar material trapped inside.
In three years a series of papers were published on the findings of Genesis. Thanks to the courageous mission, we learned unprecedented details about the formation of the sun and the fundamental differences between our stars and the inner planets of the solar system.
“The sun currently contains more than 99 percent of the material in our solar system, so it’s a good idea to get to know it better,” said Don Burnett, chief investigator of the origins of the California Institute of Technology in 2011.
“While it was more challenging than expected, we’ve answered some important questions, and, like all successful missions, have produced plenty.”
A version of this story was first published in November 2018.
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