SCI/TECH: Genesis Probe Crashes To Earth

i know they used to do aerial recoveries with spy sattelites... they would do it over the ocean though, i believe. that way if they couldn't catch it, then it would splash relatively safely into the ocean and be retrieved there. they also used trained air force pilots, not just movie stunt pilots.

The spy probes that didn't get caught and splashed into the ocean had a plug that would start dissolving when it came in contact with water. if they weren't able to locate the probe within hours of splash down the probe would fill with water and sink to the bottom of the ocean so that it wouldn't be recovered by anyone. Just a security measure i thought you would like to know.

Major bummer.
I read that the 'parachute grab' was to prevent contamination.

Sanc'.

Originally posted by deeozz
Is anyone else watching CNN? They keep replaying the same footage of the capsule in the ground and I may have been seeing things, but I could swear that in between replays of the footage, it cut to a view for like a second of where the capsule crashed, but it had been removed from the ground?

I was watching on BBC News 24 and saw the same footage, the capsule did appear to be missing and the impact crater was much larger.Did anyone see what looked like an army Blackhawk land close to it with a guy at the door taking photos ? And why did it then take off ? Shouldnt it stay there and secure the probe ?

Originally posted by ipeachey
I caught the footage here at work on FOX. They show the Sat falling from the sky from several angles. But, each time it is about to hit, they change clips to show it post impact. Why do they not want to show the impact itself. Have you guys seen the same footage or have any of you seen the impact?

They don't show it cause you can't see it. It happend so fast that the cameras were still moving down when the capsul hit, so all you see is the ground then they slowly move back up to show ground leval. They just did a quick freeze frame on CNN showing the single frame of impact before the camera was looking to far down.

That is such BS. There is no excuse for failure. I mean after the mars mission failure where the probe smacked into mars and then the shuttle columbia disaster and now this? No excuse whatsoever for all these failures. The whole team at Nasa should be ashamed of themselves. But I still love them and forgive them! It is just so disappointing

Originally posted by DetectivePerez
That is such BS. There is no excuse for failure. I mean after the mars mission failure where the probe smacked into mars and then the shuttle columbia disaster and now this? No excuse whatsoever for all these failures. The whole team at Nasa should be ashamed of themselves. But I still love them and forgive them! It is just so disappointing

This type of stuff is not exactly easy you have to expect some mistakes It was one of the first times something that was out farther then the moon has been sent back to earth. You cant say well this stuff aint rocket science because it is.

That thing survived pretty good for a crash of that type.

Oh yeah by the way that probe that crashed into mars are you talking about beagle one?

There's no excuse for losing a probe that was launched atop a rocket filled with highly reactive fuel, that performed a mission for two years in space, that collected solar particles, and that hurdled back to Earth at thousands of miles per hour????

Wow. I'd hate to be the guy who works for the maintenance department of your local car dealership...

This whole Mission is very fishy....

I do wish NASA would come clean on the purpose of thier research.

I can't believe NASA's aproach to a mission of this nature.

It just doesn't make sence. Stupid Purely Stupid.

This is only the first. Let NASA try again. In five time, I bet they will succeed.

"hurdled back to Earth at thousands of miles per hour???? "

I doubt it, considering terminal velocity and all.
I believe it hit the ground at under 100 mph.
The flipping and flopping of the sat never let it achieve very much speed.

estimated 193 mph at the moment of impact.

I KNEW IT. I just knew it. I thought to myself yesterday when I heard about this stunt helicopter recovery thing that there was no way it would work and the capsule would end up slamming into the ground. Oh they were so sure of themselves...

Though I suppose it's not all that surprising considering the utter incompetence of NASA. How do they manage to screw everything up?

Their "faster, better, cheaper" motto should be changed to "slower, crappier, cheaper".

[edit on 9/8/2004 by Flinx]

From NASA: "NASA is looking at trajectory and other data to determine what may have led to the failure of the parachutes to deploy. The capsule was designed to be able to survive such a landing. Until the spacecraft is transported to a "clean room" in Utah, NASA will not know the condition of the science samples, solar particles that were captured by Genesis and stored in the capsule."

I'd say the mission isn't a failure just yet...

I'm sorry, I've got to continue with my NASA rant.... NASA needs to be disbanded and replaced by an organization with some brains and some balls. They send these tinkertoy missions out there have a 30 percent chance of success and they have one space shuttle accident and the stop all manned space flight.

Cassini was the last worthwhile probe they've sent up. You know, a robust probe with a nuclear power source...a probe that has a very good chance of succeding, unlike these little solar powered pieces-o-crap we throw out there now.

Bah...I could continue but...

Originally posted by Flinx
I KNEW IT. I just knew it. I thought to myself yesterday when I heard about this stunt helicopter recovery thing that there was no way it would work and the capsule would end up slamming into the ground. Oh they were so sure of themselves...

Though I suppose it's not all that surprising considering the utter incompetence of NASA. How do they manage to screw everything up?

Their "faster, better, cheaper" motto should be changed to "slower, crappier, cheaper".

[edit on 9/8/2004 by Flinx]

I dunno about that - all their practicing worked out well Real Audio Video it's just a shame that the probe's chute didn't deploy in the real mission. I think it's a better deal to have 20 cheaper missions with 5 or 6 failures instead of 3 expensive missions (which produce less real science and fewer objectives) and have a higher potential of 33% to 100% failure.

Every time a mission fails NASA learns something that improves their chances of success in the next missions. It's always worked that way when you're doing "the unknown". Just look at all that failures that lead up to the success in the moon missions.

And besides, who else is going to space successfully? The Europeans have a higher failure rate, Russia is broke and can only afford to go into space when the west pays the way (for their extremely successful rockets), and China is just starting (not to mention the impressive explosion in Brazil when they tried a launch over a year ago). NASA is still the most successful, and thank goodness somebody is at least trying!

Originally posted by ipeachey
"hurdled back to Earth at thousands of miles per hour???? "

I doubt it, considering terminal velocity and all.
I believe it hit the ground at under 100 mph.
The flipping and flopping of the sat never let it achieve very much speed.

I believe hes was refering to space, 27,000mph.

Yeah it was around 100mph, not 193mph

It help up pretty good, all considering.

Also, stunt pilots are some of the best in the world, they do crazy impossible # for a living.

Nasa needs to learn a little thing called a BACK UP PLAN! So if the chute failed to be deployed then they could have it land on a big air bag on the ground or 4 helicopters could be holding a giant net to catch it in.

You know that NASA planned for this contingency. I am sure they determined the approximate speed at impact as well. Nevertheless, that's a hell of an impact - 193MPH? Luckily it landed in sand which provided just slightly more cushioning at that speed than say a concrete driveway.

Let's hope for the best.

My chemistry professor is saying they should be able to recover some of the particles though... hopefully he is right.

I think the mission was pretty much blown. I saw a guy on Fox say the the interior was hernetically sealed to prevent the samples from being contaminated by the earth's atmosphere. He said that seal was broken and the contents were undoubtably contaminated.

Still we can hope for the best and in a few years the pictures of the capsule plummeting to earth and being imbedded in the earth will be making the rounds on the internet as proof that aliens have landed.