DISCOVERY MISSION: GENESIS

Click for larger image		What is the sun made of? Are the Earth and planets made of the same materials? The Genesis mission sent a spacecraft to collect pieces of the sun, called solar wind, that may contain the answers. After its August 8, 2001 launch, the Genesis spacecraft journeyed a million miles sunward, unfolded its collectors and begAn to "sunbathe" for more than two years, before returning to Earth in September 2004 with its unique cargo.
MISSION OBJECTIVES (Click image for full size view) The goal of the mission is to enrich our understanding of the birth and evolution of the planets and all the bodies in our solar system. Most scientists believe the solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago by the gravitational collapse of the solar nebula, dust and ice created from the stars. As time went on, most of the material was pulled together by gravity to form the Sun and other celestial bodies as we know them today. Yet many mysteries remain unanswered: How did this transformation from solar nebula to planets take place? Why did some planets, like Venus, develop thick, poisonous atmospheres? How did the Earth's environment develop to sustain life?

Partial answers from previous studies suggest that moons, planets, and even asteroids are significantly different in composition. But without knowing what the original solar nebula was made of, complete answers are not possible. Because it is believed that the outer layers of the Sun are composed of very nearly the same material as the original solar nebula, the opportunity to compare the Sun's composition against known planetary composition data sets may provide significant answers.

On November 16, 2001, Genesis entered into halo orbit around L1. In early December the spacecraft's collector arrays were deployed, the ion concentrator was turned on, and the science of Genesis began. The concentrator and arrays collected solar wind for 26 months, through April 2, 2004. Then the collectors were re-stowed and the spacecraft headed back to Earth.

SAMPLE RETURN

On September 8, 2004, the sample return canister separated from the spacecraft and entered Earth's atmosphere, heading toward the preplanned entry ellipse in the Utah Test and Training Range. However, the neither the drogue parachute nor the parafoil deployed, and the Genesis capsule impacted the ground at a speed of 311 kilometers per hour (193 mph). The impact occurred near Granite Peak on a remote portion of the range.

The science canister in clean room

The science canister containing the solar wind particles was transported to a specially constructed clean room at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where team members began the tedious effort to extract the pieces and inventory the contents. There was good news when they discovered that three of the four separate segments of the concentrator target were intact. Designed to measure the isotopic ratios of oxygen and nitrogen, these segments contain the mission's most important science goal. The fourth was broken but all the pieces were there. They also discovered the gold foil collector, the number two priority for science recovery, was undamaged and in excellent condition. The gold foil is expected to contain almost a million billion atoms of solar wind.

One of the concentrator targets

Team members worked for two days to extract tiny pieces of the collectors from the dirt. Because this was a contingency they had prepared for, they were ready with buckets containing trowels, tweezers, and zip lock bags. The goal of the curation team from NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) was to maintain the scientific integrity of the samples and to make the samples safe for transport. By the time the work was completed there were an estimated 10,000 pieces documented and individually packaged.

The samples arrived at Genesis clean room at JSC on Monday, October 4, 2004, where they were numbered and packaged. The science team began work to sort the samples and deal with contamination issues.

MISHAP INVESTIGATION BOARD REPORT

The Mishap Investigation Board (MIB), led Dr. Michael Ryschkewitsch, identified a likely direct cause of the failure of Genesis' parachute system to open. The MIB reported in mid-October 2004 that the likely cause for the failure of the parachute system to deploy was a faulty design that resulted in the gravity switches which sense deceleration as the capsule enters the Earth's atmosphere being improperly installed on a circuit board.

SCIENCE RESULTS

In March 2005, Principal Investigator Don Burnett announced that the mission had identified ions of solar wind in one of the wafer fragments. He said molecular and particulate contamination did not impede implantation of solar wind in the collectors. The team then began accepting science community requests from its catalogue of over 10,000 samples.

Mission scientists continue to make progress in the curation of the sample collection with surface characterization, new cleaning techniques and delivery of samples to investigators. Dealing with many challenges, the team remains optimistic that the Genesis solar samples will provide important information on the history and origin of the solar system.

MISSION MANAGEMENT

The Genesis project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Donald Burnett of the California Institute of Technology is the Principal Investigator. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colorado, is providing spacecraft and system integration.

For more information, visit the Genesis home page.