Genesis Mission Status Update December 5, 2002

Happy anniversary Genesis!

This week the Genesis spacecraft exceeded the 1 year mark in the
collection of solar wind samples. Telemetry from the spacecraft
indicates that it is spinning at a rate of 1.584 rotations per minute
and in overall good health.

Genesis team members at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are monitoring
voltage sags in the grid wires forming a rejection grid in front of the
spacecraft’s sample concentrator. The voltage sagged below its intended
level only once in the past 12 days, after doing so on several occasions
in the preceding 10 days. The grid carries a positive charge in order to
deflect hydrogen ions while allowing heavier oxygen ions to pass through.
That concentrates oxygen, in proportion to hydrogen, reaching a collector
tile.

The Genesis flight team is in the final design and testing stages of the
spacecraft’s next station-keeping maneuver. This maneuver, to be
performed on Dec. 10, will fine-tune the spacecraft’s orbit around the
Lagrange 1 point of gravitational stability between Earth and the Sun.