Genesis Mission Status Report - September 16, 2004

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2004-231

DC Agle (818) 354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Bill Jeffs (281) 438-5035
Johnson Space Center

Donald Savage (202) 358-1547
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.


Genesis Mission Status Report
September 16, 2004

Genesis team scientists and engineers continue their work on the
mission's sample return canister in a specially constructed clean room
at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Dugway, Utah. As more of the
capsule's contents are revealed, the team's level of enthusiasm for the
amount of science obtainable continues to rise.

At present, the science canister that holds the majority of the
mission's scientific samples is lying upside down - on its lid.
Scientists are very methodically working their way "up" from the bottom
portion of the canister by trimming away small portions of the
canister's wall. The team continues to extract, from the interior of the
science canister, small but potentially analyzable fragments of
collector array material. One-half of a sapphire wafer was collected
Tuesday - the biggest piece of collector array to date.

The mission's main priority is to measure oxygen isotopes to determine
which of several theories is correct regarding the role of oxygen in the
formation of the solar system. Scientists hope to determine this with
isotopes collected in the four target segments of the solar wind
concentrator carried by the Genesis spacecraft. The condition of these
segments will be better known over the next few days, after the
canister's solar wind concentrator is extricated. At this time, it is
believed that three of these segments are relatively intact and that the
fourth may have sustained one or more fractures. There are no concrete
plans regarding the shipping date of the Genesis capsule or its contents
from Dugway to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The team continues
its meticulous work and believes that a significant repository of solar
wind materials may have survived that will keep the science community
busy for some time.

The Genesis sample return capsule landed well within the projected
ellipse path in the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 8, but its
parachutes did not open. It impacted the ground at nearly 320 kilometers
per hour (nearly 200 miles per hour). For more information regarding the
recovery and analysis of Genesis samples please contact Bill Jeffs of
NASA Johnson Space Center at 281-483-5035 or via email at
.

News and information about Genesis is available on the Internet at
http://www.nasa.gov/genesis. For background information about Genesis,
visit http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov. For information about NASA on
the Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

The mission's main priority is to measure oxygen isotopes to determine
which of several theories is correct regarding the role of oxygen in the
formation of the solar system. Scientists hope to determine this with
isotopes collected in the four target segments of the solar wind
concentrator carried by the Genesis spacecraft.

How will they be able to tell the solar oxygen from the oxygen
from the earth's atmosphere that I assume got at these samples
when Genesis crashed? Would the solar oxygen dig deeper into
the wafers than the atmospheric oxygen would? Or would they
do a comparison of wafers not flown but exposed to the atmosphere
for the same period of time and subtract out the difference (which
would be the solar oxygen)? That could make for noisy data
though.

"Robert Casey" wrote in message
...


The mission's main priority is to measure oxygen isotopes to determine
which of several theories is correct regarding the role of oxygen in the
formation of the solar system. Scientists hope to determine this with
isotopes collected in the four target segments of the solar wind
concentrator carried by the Genesis spacecraft.

How will they be able to tell the solar oxygen from the oxygen
from the earth's atmosphere that I assume got at these samples
when Genesis crashed? Would the solar oxygen dig deeper into
the wafers than the atmospheric oxygen would? Or would they
do a comparison of wafers not flown but exposed to the atmosphere
for the same period of time and subtract out the difference (which
would be the solar oxygen)? That could make for noisy data
though.

Isn't it a matter of different isotopes of oxygen, that those in the solar
wind
are different from those in this atmosphere?