Ray of hope for smashed capsule

NASA renderings of the Genesis spacecraft sent to collect solar wind particles made it look like a big Swiss watch in space, delicate and shining. Today, the capsule looks as if someone smashed the watch with a hammer. But scientists remain optimistic they will manage to extract valuable information from it.

The wreckage has been hauled to a "clean room" that was built at Dugway Proving Ground. The glassed-in room was intended to house the capsule when it was plucked in midair, intact, by capture helicopters.

But when Genesis re-entered the atmosphere on Sept. 8, its parachutes failed to open, and it smashed into Dugway's mud flats.

Photos posted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, show scientists sifting through the debris. One picture displays fragments of collector plates that seem up to a few inches across. In another, an expert uses a plastic spoon and a pair of tweezers to sort tiny broken bits.

The Genesis science canister remains upside-down, the orientation it had when the capsule was recovered and brought to Dugway. If it were to be turned right-side up, broken shards would fall onto other pieces, further damaging the material.

Some solar wind sample collectors were easy to reach because the science capsule was breached when it crashed. Others are deeper inside the canister.

"The sample canister's outer wall is being cut away by technicians in order to reach the solar wind samples inside," said spokesman Bill Jeffs of the Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Scientists believe they can extract information from these samples, Jeffs added in a telephone interview on Monday. They expressed hope "that they'll achieve most if not all of their primary science objectives, and a good many of the secondary science objectives," he said.

Scientists have not given up on any of the data, which they hope will shed light on the chemical makeup of the sun. During its two-year cruise, Genesis gathered bits of the solar wind, which continuously blasts away from the sun. The chemical makeup of these atomic particles, normally deflected from Earth by the planet's magnetic field, may tell much about how the solar system formed.

Eileen Stansbery, Genesis contamination control leader, is at Dugway working on the project, Jeffs said.

He is not sure of the quantity of material recovered but thinks it is "quite a bit."

The 15 researchers who were named members of the Genesis Science Team in 1997 probably will begin analyzing samples in October or November, Jeffs said.