NSSDCA ID: 2001-034A-02
Mission Name: GenesisThe Genesis sample collection and return capsule is disc-shaped with a blunt conical top and bottom, 1.5 meters in diameter and 1.31 meters high, with a total mass of about 225 kg. It contains a 97.3 cm diameter science cannister which holds a concentrator and three collector arrays. The collector arrays are flat discs made of hexagons of ultra-pure silicon, silicon carbide, germanium, sapphire, chemically deposited diamond, gold, aluminum, and metallic glass wafers which were exposed to the solar wind. Isotopes of helium, oxygen, nitrogen, neon, radon, and other elements were implanted in the top 100 nm of these materials. The concentrator is an electrostatic mirror which concentrates elements up to neon by a factor of approximately 20. Each collector array was deployed for a different solar wind regime.
The Genesis spacecraft was inserted into halo orbit On 3 December 2001 the collector arrays were opened and began gathering samples of solar wind particles. It completed 5 halo orbits over 30 months collecting samples. In April of 2004 it ended sample collection and shut the door to the sample collection cannister after 884 days of sample collection. The total estimated sample returned was about 0.4 milligrams, roughly 1E20 ions.
The samples were stowed and sealed in the contamination-tight canister within the capsule and the spacecraft began a five month return to Earth, flying past the Earth and then returning in order to be positioned for daylight entry. On 8 September 2004 the sample return capsule was released from the main spacecraft bus at about 12:00 UT and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at 15:52:47 UT (11:53 a.m. EDT, 9:53 a.m. local MDT) and should have deployed a drogue parachute 2 minutes 7 seconds after entry at 33 km altitude. The parachute never deployed and the capsule crashed in the desert at a speed of 311 km/hr, severely damaging the capsule. The science cannister was removed to a clean room and the sample collection fragments recovered and shipped to the Johnson Space Center astromaterials curation facility for distribution to laboratories. The science team has determined that the sample collection fragments, though damaged and contaminated by exposure on impact, are still viable for scientific research and that most of the science goals can be achieved.
Mass: 225 kg
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Donald S. Burnett | Principal Investigator | California Institute of Technology | burnett@gps.caltech.edu |