NASA Genesis Mission Status Report 16 September 2004

Genesis team scientists and engineers continue their work on the
mission’s sample return canister in a specially constructed clean room
at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Dugway, Utah. As more of the
capsule’s contents are revealed, the team’s level of enthusiasm for
the amount of science obtainable continues to rise.

At present, the science canister that holds the majority of the
mission’s scientific samples is lying upside down – on its lid.
Scientists are very methodically working their way “up” from the
bottom portion of the canister by trimming away small portions of the
canister’s wall. The team continues to extract, from the
interior of the science canister, small but potentially analyzable
fragments of collector array material. One-half of a sapphire wafer
was collected Tuesday – the biggest piece of collector array to date.

The mission’s main priority is to measure oxygen isotopes to determine
which of several theories is correct regarding the role of oxygen in
the formation of the solar system. Scientists hope to determine this
with isotopes collected in the four target segments of the solar wind
concentrator carried by the Genesis spacecraft. The condition of these
segments will be better known over the next few days, after the
canister’s solar wind concentrator is extricated. At this time, it is
believed that three of these segments are relatively intact and that
the fourth may have sustained one or more fractures.

There are no concrete plans regarding the shipping date of the Genesis
capsule or its contents from Dugway to the Johnson Space Center in
Houston. The team continues its meticulous work and believes that a
significant repository of solar wind materials may have survived that
will keep the science community busy for some time.

The Genesis sample return capsule landed well within the projected
ellipse path in the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 8, but its
parachutes did not open. It impacted the ground at nearly 320
kilometers per hour (nearly 200 miles per hour).

For more information regarding the recovery and analysis of Genesis
samples please contact Bill Jeffs of NASA Johnson Space Center at
281-483-5035 or via email at william.p.jeffs@nasa.gov.