Status Report

Genesis Mission Outreach E-News, 21st Edition August 2001

By SpaceRef Editor
August 31, 2001
Filed under , ,

Visit the Genesis mission outreach Web site at: http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov

Genesis Launch Report

After a flawless launch on August 8 at 12:13:40 p.m. EDT, the Genesis spacecraft is on its mission to “catch a piece of the sun.” View JPL news release and launch replay at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_169.html At 64 minutes, 12 seconds into the mission, the Genesis spacecraft separated from the Delta’s third stage. Immediately after separation, Genesis’ solar arrays unfolded and pointed toward the sun. The spacecraft’s signal was successfully acquired by the NASA Deep Space Network complex at Goldstone, California, 85 minutes after launch.

Kennedy Space Center maintains a photo archive of images that reveal mission progress from the time of spacecraft arrival at Cape Canaveral until the time of launch. You can view these spectacular images at: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/genesis.htm

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Genesis Mission Status Update

The Genesis spacecraft is performing well. This week, the doors of the Genesis Ion Monitor (GIM) and Genesis Electron Monitor (GEM) were successfully opened. After a period of outgassing, the GEM and GIM were turned on. Their performance indicates that the door is open. Instrument checkout was also successfully completed. The science algorithm WIND, which will ultimately be used to automatically determine the solar wind regime and deploy or stow the solar wind collector arrays accordingly, was enabled, with stellar results. The algorithm correctly determined a solar wind speed of 380 km/sec, a proton density of less than one per cubic centimeter, and temperature of 90,000 Kelvin (TK Fahrenheit). The spacecraft’s measurements were confirmed by comparison with data from the ACE spacecraft, currently in the vicinity of Genesis’ destination, L1. Daily precession maneuvers have been successfully implemented to keep the spacecraft orientation correct with respect to the sun. This is important because these precession maneuvers continue to validate that the spacecraft is in spin-track mode using star trackers.

Are you interested in following mission progress? You can remain informed on Genesis and its progress by accessing the Genesis mission homepage where you will find mission status updates, or go directly to our status updates page: http://www.genesismission.org/mission/statusupdate.html

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Genesis and the Media

If you were unable to personally experience the August 8 Genesis launch from Cape Canaveral, we hope you were able to view television coverage of the event via NASA TV’s live online video stream or on CNN live. Hundreds of national and international newspapers, television and radio stations, and online news reporters got into the excitement of the Genesis launch, releasing news around the event. Imagine the anticipation when the science canister returns in September 2004.

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A Back to School Apple for the Teacher

Teachers, are you looking for new and exciting ways to get your students involved in science? The Genesis mission Web site features a new cleanroom electronic field trip that you can access online at: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/Field_Trip/genesis/cd_index.html “How can middle school students be fascinated by a clean room?” The interactive field trip virtually walks your students into NASA’s cleanest room at Johnson Space Center, and takes them through several interactives, including suiting up in a bunny suit, using a liquid particle counter, and several group activities on attaching collector wafers onto the array frame. The field trip is part of a NASA Genesis cleanroom trilogy, including a newly-released middle school education module titled “Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom”: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/Cleanroom.html and a video, “Cleanroom Technology”: http://www.genesismission.org/mission/mediarelease/index.html

If you are looking for a multifaceted way to bring the technology and design National Science Education Standards into your curricula in a substantive and real-world way, don’t miss these!

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Would you like to implement Genesis materials into your educational program?

Genesis materials provide standards-based instructional strategies that can be used in varied formal and informal settings. http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/moduleoverview.html Educators from around the country are invited to field test any of our education modules or Genesis Kids materials this school year. We will send you a module notebook of your choice and evaluation forms you can use to provide valuable feedback. Make a difference. Become a McREL Development Network Fellow. Interested educators should contact John Ristvey at 303-632-5620 or jristvey@mcrel.org for more information.

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Genesis Mission Outreach E-News features information about the mission, its outreach Web site, and products, services, and materials available from the McREL Genesis Education and Public Outreach (EPO) team. NASA’s Discovery 5 Mission: Genesis is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Various e-mail programs and versions of Internet browsers handle the links to URLs embedded in this e-newsletter differently. We hope you will be able to navigate easily to the featured sections of the Genesis EPO Web site.

Genesis Mission Outreach E-News is sent to you on a monthly basis. If you do not want to receive this newsletter, please follow the instructions at the end of this page.

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Subscription Information

Subscribe here http://www.genesismission.org/contact/subscribe/subscriptionform.asp for notification of new materials and events as they occur!

Please forward this e-mail to share with others interested in NASA missions. This subscription is a free service offered by the NASA Genesis mission outreach team at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). Based in Aurora, Colorado, McREL is a private, nonprofit organization whose purpose is to improve education through applied research and development. McREL provides products and services, primarily for K-12 educators, to promote the best instructional practices in the classroom.

SpaceRef staff editor.