NASA's Genesis spacecraft, the first mission to collect and return solar wind samples with Liquidmetal alloy based solar wind collector tiles had an unexpected harsh re-entry to earth this past fall. The parachute system failed to deploy when Genesis returned to Earth September 8, 2004. The MIB, analyzing the Genesis capsule at a facility near Denver, said the likely cause was a design error that involves the orientation of gravity-switch devices.
Meanwhile, scientists unpacking samples at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, curation facility remain upbeat in their assessment of the prospects for obtaining useful science from the recovered samples.
The mission was designed to measure the composition of isotopes in solar matter.
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