Solar plates may be intact

Some of the Genesis solar wind collector plates apparently remained intact after the $264 million spacecraft smashed into the western Utah desert Wednesday, while parts of others were pulverized.

A day after the mishap, NASA researchers still believed they could extract scientific treasures from the glassy plates.

"This thing hit at a velocity of nearly 200 miles per hour, so there was a lot of damage done," David Lindstrom, NASA Genesis program scientist, said Thursday during a telephone press conference. Based in Washington, D.C., Lindstrom was at Dugway Proving Ground for the postmortem on the spacecraft, which slammed into the ground when its re-entry parachutes failed to deploy.

"We have a mangled mess of a spacecraft," he added. "The sample canister broke open and some of its contents came out."

Genesis cruised deep space beyond Earth for three years, collecting samples of solar wind particles for more than two years. To protect the fragile sample plates it was to be captured in midair by helicopter. The maneuver also was designed to prevent contaminating the solar particles.

The craft was half buried in the soft ground and workers shoveled it clear. Then it was lifted out and brought to scientists at Dugway. The smashed sample return capsule was flown aboard a military helicopter while the larger capsule that it was in traveled to Dugway's Michael Army Airfield by truck.

On Thursday, experts were sent back to the crash site about 30 miles west-northwest of the airfield "to look for additional pieces that are buried in the dirt," Lindstrom said.

The sample container suffered a 6-inch gap between top and bottom, he said. A major part of the container "was severely crushed" while another part seems little damaged, though ripped open.

"We haven't actually started opening the canister yet," he said. Scientists were documenting the damage and gathering their tools.

"Even now we think that we can remove most of the impurities off the surface and have them still be useful," he said.

While experts have not yet opened the canister, looking through the opening "we believe we can see full, 10mm hexagons," he said, referring to the hexagonal collection plates. "The minimum size is probably dust."

Mud is being removed by sweeping, vacuum and picking. "We may get into washing. It's too early to say because we're still inventorying."