Status Report

January Genesis Mission E-Newsletter 30 Jan 2002

By SpaceRef Editor
January 30, 2002
Filed under ,

GENESIS MISSION STATUS UPDATE

Date: January 17, 2002

The second station keeping maneuver, SKM-1B, was successfully executed yesterday at high noon Mountain Time. The burn, which took about 282 seconds, was accurate to about 0.1 degree. Following this, star tracker images were taken for trending purposes. Initially, it seems that this maneuver was even better than the already good SKM-1A. SKM-1C is scheduled for mid-March.

This morning, a rejection grid test was performed with somewhat surprising results: The rejection grid was stepped up in 20-volt increments from 1500 to 1620 volts, and performed well. Previously, we had only been able to take the rejection grid up to about 1540 volts (while stepping up in larger increments). Next week, we will do more tests to see if we can now raise the software limit on the rejection grid.

We had three different solar wind regimes over the last week. We had a high-speed coronal mass ejection followed by high-speed wind. Now slow (interstream) solar wind is probably passing by the spacecraft. Science has reported that everything is going swimmingly.

Genesis mission status updates since the time of launch can be found at: http://www.genesismission.org/mission/statusupdate.html

Where is the Genesis spacecraft now?
View the position of the Genesis spacecraft. Most images are updated every 10 minutes. http://www.genesismission.org/mission/live_shots.html

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GENESIS MISSION WEBCAST AND NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK

Date: February 21, 2002

Time: 10:00 a.m. PDT

Mathematics and science teachers, would you like to offer your students the opportunity to interact with Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers? The Genesis mission will conduct a Webcast that features a classroom activity from the upcoming Genesis “Destination L1: A Thematic Unit” education module. Here’s how to participate.

Print the teacher guide: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/TGWEBkeplerslaws.pdf

student text: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/STWEBL1OrBust.pdf

and student activity: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/SAWEBInclinedPend.pdf

from the Web site. (Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html is needed to download these pdf files.) After conducting the activity with your class, encourage interested students to submit questions about the activity, orbits, trajectories, or the Genesis mission in general via e-mail to: genesisepo@mcrel.org Questions must be submitted by midnight, February 7, 2002, after which they will be reviewed, and selected inquiries will be read on the Webcast and answered by Genesis mission Project Manager Chet Sasaki or Trajectory Analyst Jennie Johannesen. If you are unable to conduct the activity prior to February 7, you can tune in on Feb. 21 and watch Alta Loma, CA high school teacher Tom Curley conduct the activity with several students.

For more information on this activity, check out our Webcast page: http://www.genesismission.org/product/webcast.html

If you are unable to tune in at 10:00 a.m. PDT on February 21, the Webcast can be accessed on demand on the JPL Web site for later viewing. Check out past and upcoming Webcasts at JPL at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/webcast_events.html

Encourage your students to consider engineering as a career and support National Engineers Week. http://www.eweek.org/

GENESIS AND DYNAMIC DESIGN

Teachers, the Genesis mission is now in full science collection mode. Are you looking for a unit on data collection, and would you like to have it tied to a NASA mission? The middle school module: “Dynamic Design: A Collection Process” http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/CollProcess/index.html engages students in a data collection process using the example of Genesis solar wind collectors. The Dynamic Design series has two additional modules: “Dynamic Design: Launch and Propulsion” http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/Launch_Propulsion.html in which students learn about the history of rocketry and how rockets are launched, and “Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom” http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/CleanRoom.html where
students experience the requirements and conditions of working in NASA’s cleanest room.

Dynamic Design modules were written to address the science and technology recommendations in the National Science Education Standards, which state that “The understanding of technology can be developed by tasks in which students have to design something and also by studying technological products and systems.”

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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.

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SpaceRef staff editor.