Stardust Return

[Holly]

Last week I was in Houston at Johnson Space Center for the Stardust Conference. Stardust ended a fantastic mission to a comet with a great landing--the fastest, steepest, hottest ever. The first two people to approach the capsule are the ordinance expert and the safety expert. One of the team in this picture is demonstrating the outfit they wear. And I thought I looked strange in the desert wearing my 'stitch!

We had a great conference--rubbed shoulders with the scientists and engineers, had our noses pressed against the clean room window as the first piece was removed from the collector, got into the meteor clean room. I'm still totally spaced out!

Holly

[BradfordBenn]

Way coooooool

[BubbaZanetti]

i'd read about this up to the landing on the comet itself, it actually returned??? i can't imagine the math involved in doing that successfully!!!

[1flyer]

i'd read about this up to the landing on the comet itself, it actually returned??? i can't imagine the math involved in doing that successfully!!!

That was another probe but the Math is still impressive. Good on them for a successful mission. An outstanding achievement. I can’t wait until the results of the analysis start coming out

[The_Veg]

So how'd you get an in for that?

[GregFeeler]

Wow, that had to be very amazing!

[Kbrick]

Wow, that had to be very amazing!

That really is facinating stuff. The physics of such a job needless to say is impressive!
Good job kids!

[knary]

I think the gist of the posts can be summed up as, "TELL US MORE!"


:lurk

[riderR1150GSAdv]

Yes, Please tell us more! :lurk Maybe some more pics??

[Holly]

Yes, the return was incredible--the steepest, fastest, hottest ever. The Lockheed Martin Engineers were doing Math the whole time. Interestingly, the capsule was ambient temperature when they found it 40 minutes after landing. The ordinance guy goes first to make sure that the explosives for the parachute all fired properly. Everything on board has a redundant system so there is always a chance even if the parachute deployed properly that one explosive is still live. Then the safety officer checks to make sure the battery is intact and not venting SO2. He tapes over the vents, then they call in the recovery team, which wraps the capsule in Saran Wrap (no kidding!) and carts it off to the clean room. Check out the Stardust site at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

How did I get to go? I am involved with the JASON Project: http://www.jason.org/ and was one of 14 teachers chosen for the first NASA Stardust Summer Institute in 1997, where we learned about the project. 2 of our group were in FL for the launch and the rest of us watched it streamed on computers. We got up at an ungodly hour on Jan. 15th to watch the return. 7 of us were invited to Houston for the conference the next week. Needless to say, we said YES!

My pics aren't great and I haven't photoshopped them yet. In fact I even forgot to rotate one. But they are up on Snapfish: http://www.snapfish.com/home/t_=26174302
If it asks for a userid it is: holly@hwcn.org (don't email me on that--it is my spam collector) and the password is weddingpics. Relax, the wedding pics aren't there, but you can peak at my annual Brick party. 2004 theme was Mother Goose, 2005 was fifties, 2006 will be Monty Python.

Holly (still spaced out)

[Mika]

WOW. :thumb

[Holly]

The spacecraft is still up there. Only the capsule returned to earth. On Sunday the 29th, at 5pm Mountain time, Lockheed Martin is going to send the signal to shut it down. We are all planning to wear black and raise a glass :drink :drink
There is still some fuel on board and the main power source is the solar panels. So it could be reactivated if another use is identified. The collectores are no longer there but the cameras could still be used.

I was the only non-American at the conference. I'm waiting for that Canadian flag so I can wave it.

Holly

[Holly]

Much better pics of the conference have been posted at: http://www.conodontguy.com/stardust.htm

That URL didn't work for me, so I went to http://www.conodontguy.com clicked on education, then the Stardust symbol to find them.

Holly

[Holly]

Apparently Saran Wrap is the material that is most impervious to air, so Dow mad a special double strength type and Saran tape. That is what they used to wrap up the capsule and take it to the clean room.
Holly

[The_Veg]

Either that or it's the industrial stuff used for wrapping loaded pallets.

[riderR1150GSAdv]

Sweet and thanks!!!! :thumb

[1flyer]

Apparently Saran Wrap is the material that is most impervious to air, so Dow mad a special double strength type and Saran tape. That is what they used to wrap up the capsule and take it to the clean room.
Holly

I wonder why they would need to do that. You would think that the re-entry would have purged anything from the outer surface and any dust from landing would be eliminated in the clean room before opening the capsule. So why wrap it up in Saran wrap for transport?

[Holly]

Scientists would be arguing forever about whether the Stardust had been contaminated if you didn't take all precautions to make sure it wasn't. Plus the Roswell, NM group would probably go on about alien microbes escaping etc. :fight

You also don't want to carry any more dust than necessary into a clean room, so keeping the capsule as clean as possible while you transport it is a help.

Of course the canister containing the Aerogel and Stardust was well sealed in the capsule, which wasn't opened until it was safely in the cleanroom. When we were at Johnson Space Center, we saw pictures of how badly smucked Genesis was when the parachute didn't deploy. It was a mess, but they are still hoping to get some decent science out of the remnants. Having a really clean one for comparison is going to help a lot.

Holly

[Holly]

And here it the cartoon on the clean room ;)

[1flyer]

I wonder why they would need to do that. You would think that the re-entry would have purged anything from the outer surface and any dust from landing would be eliminated in the clean room before opening the capsule. So why wrap it up in Saran wrap for transport?


I think I found out why the wrap. Reports from another site say there was rain in the area.

"SATURDAY, JAN. 14 "We don't want the S.R.C. [sample return capsule] to land in deep water, as water and our sampling aerogel don't play well together. This brings us to one of our bigger concerns of the moment. The weather folks are telling us that a new storm is expected to blow in at just about the time we would begin the recovery process."

SUNDAY, JAN. 15 "The capsule landed during a lull between two storms. The field conditions were VERY muddy, but no water got in the S.R.C., and the S.R.C. itself didn't get too muddy between rain storms."

Makes sense to me. Reallly interested in what they find. Can you keep us up to date Holly?

[Holly]

Yes, the mud on their boots was unbelievable. They were so happy that there was a break in the storms for the landing, no one cared. Besides, they had practiced so often for any possible mishap that having the fastest, steepest, hottest re-entry ever go so well was pure joy.

The shutdown went well and we all hoisted a drink as they put her to sleep.
Here is the status report:

Stardust Mission Status Report

NASA's Stardust spacecraft was placed into hibernation mode yesterday. Stardust
successfully returned to Earth samples of a comet via its sample return capsule on Jan.
15. The spacecraft has logged almost seven years of flight.

"We sang our spacecraft to sleep today with a melody of digital ones and zeros," said
Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "Stardust has performed flawlessly these last seven years and 2.88 billion miles and
deserves a rest for a while, like the rest of the team."

The "song" was actually a series of commands that was sent up to the spacecraft
yesterday, Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. Pacific time (7 p.m. Eastern time). The commands
deactivated all but a few essential systems, such as Stardust's solar arrays and receive
antenna - which will remain powered on. This long-term hibernation state could allow
for almost indefinite (tens of years) out-of-contact operations while maintaining the
spacecraft health.

"Placing Stardust in hibernation gives us options to possibly reuse it in the future," said
Dr. Tom Morgan, Stardust Program Executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "The
mission has already been a great success, but if at all possible we may want to add even
more scientific dividends to this remarkable mission's record of achievement."

The Stardust spacecraft is currently in an orbit that travels from a little closer to the Sun
than that of the Earth to well beyond the orbit of Mars. It will next fly past Earth on
January 14, 2009, at a distance of about 1 million kilometers (621,300 miles).

NASA's Stardust sample return mission successfully concluded its prime mission on Jan.
15, 1006, when its sample return capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles
successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time) in the
desert salt flats of the Utah Test and Training Range.

Stardust scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston are currently analyzing
what could be considered a treasure-trove of cometary and interstellar dust samples that
exceeded their grandest expectations. Scientists believe these precious samples will help
provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar
system.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Stardust mission for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, developed and operated the spacecraft.

For information about the Stardust mission on the Web, visit www.nasa.gov/stardust .