Genesis: NASA's mission to collect the solar wind

NASA's Genesis spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Launch Date: August 8, 2001

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral at Florida, United States

Launch Vehicle: Delta II (7326 Variant)

Mission Type: Sample Return

Target: The Sun

Dimensions: Unavailable.

Mass: 236.6 Kilograms (Main Spacecraft Minus Capsule) 205 Kilograms (Return Capsule)

Genesis was NASA's mission to collect particles from the solar wind, and bring them back to Earth. After launch, Genesis journeyed to Lagrange point 1 or L1, and got there on November 16, 2001. This Lagrange point is a gravitationally stable region on the Sun facing side of Earth's orbit. There are four other Lagrange points at various places around Earth's orbit.  After around 30 months of collecting, Genesis closed up its sample canisters on April 1, 2004.

Genesis' mission trajectory. Credit: NASA

The spacecraft then flew by Earth before heading to the opposite side, at the L2 Lagrangian point. Then the spacecraft turned around, and headed back to Earth. The sample capsule entered Earth's atmosphere on September 8, 2004. Unfortunately, the parachutes for the capsule failed. The capsule was intended to softly land in the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), but ended up smashing into the Earth.

Credit: USAF 388th Range Squad

Credit: NASA/JSC

The capsule smashed itself into pieces, and the sample canisters were breached. Within 8 hours, the remains of the sample canisters were removed, and taken to the cleanroom at UTTR. The canisters were contaminated with surface moisture and dust. However it wasn't the end of the world, and the canisters were still mostly intact. The dust was removed, and good science was still able to be retrieved from the samples.

For example: according to Apollo mission samples, the Sun was much more active in the past. This was determined by neon isotope analysis. The Sun was predicted to have higher solar activity billions of years ago, far more than was predicted. Using a simulated sample that was aboard the Genesis spacecraft, scientists figured out it was due to the way different neon isotopes embedded themselves in materials. This showed that the Sun wasn't significantly more active in the past then it is today.

The Target

Image of the Sun from the Solar Dynamic Observatory. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

• Designation: Sun (Sol)
• Type: G2 V (Main-Sequence Yellow Dwarf)
• Temperature: 5772 Kelvin (At the "Surface" or Photosphere)
• Magnitude: -26.83
• Mass: 1.989x10^30 Kilograms
• Radius: 695,508 Kilometres
• Density: 1.41 g/cm^3
• Orbit: ~230 Million Years (Around the Galactic Centre)