Genesis, that wacky solar atom catching device from NASA, has crashed into Earth. It was supposed to have deployed a parachute to slow down enough for Hollywood stunt pilots to grab it with the helicopters they were flying.
"The capsule has suffered extensive damage. It has broken apart on the desert floor," said an official on NASA TV. "Hopefully, there will be enough evidence to see what went wrong. Whether there will be enough science left inside remains to be seen."
NASA officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said that long-range cameras did not detect the parachutes that should have slowed the craft.
"There was no drogue chute or parafoil," said a JPL spokesman. "Under those condition, the Genesis capsule hit the ground at about 100 mph."
— CNN
What is it with NASA these days?
Are we not funding them enough or is this, and all the other fiascos, the result of poor leadership and management? Hmmm, maybe they all need to go back to those cool buzz cuts they all had in the 50's.
So much for visiting the moon in my lifetime. Damn.
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You still never know about that moon visit. Just have to wait for the privately owned compaines to step up to the plate
these people lead the way in space technology? i've seen better technology with teenage druggies and their weed/hash instruments they engineer for that "space" high.
Cheers to NASA!
Yes! Right on, Jeremy G.! The State is the problem, the private sector is the sollution!
I can understand the practicality of mandatory taxation backed with the threat of jail for things like social security, but I would not stand for my tax money to go into such ventures are State-run space exploration, especially considering how the State atracts professional bureaucrats and other such leeches, like feces atracts flies.
Space exploration is hard. Interplanetary space exploration is extremely hard.
Yes, human error occasionally enters the picture and causes problems, but this is true for any endeavor. Failures are magnified, as in airline disasters, because the total number of events are rare.
They are rare because, in addition to being hard, space exploration is expensive. "The private sector is the solution." In the case of the tried and true, Low Earth Orbit, you are correct. But the private sector isn't going to invest millions to collect solar wind particles (the subject of the Genesis experiment) because there is no profit in doing so.
The State expends resources that the private sector cannot in order to solve technological hurdles, so that markets can be opened at a lower risk for the private sector. Where do you think the Internet came from? Or the Web?
Until technology is developed (space elevator) to decrease launch costs, by several magnitudes, there will continue to be a significant role for government to play in the exploration and development of space.
Greg, can't the Rocket Scientist clarify all of this for us?
RE: "The State is the problem, the private sector is the sollution!"
The biggest problem with private sector space exploration is well outlined in a fictional novel by Dan Brown (the same guy who wrote The Da Vinci Code) called Deception Point.
He wrote that the problem with private companies taking over space exploration is that basically people are greedy. How long would it take to have a giant Starbucks logo replace the man on the moon?
A Starbucks logo on the moon ? Next, we'll be seeing SPF34000 suncream for the summer holidays in Crater 3, the new St Moritz !
Thank you, Jon. Thank you.
When something goes wrong on a space mission, it gets called a "fiasco" because everyone hears about it and because it's part of an inherently expensive process. The rest of the world calls them "mistakes."
If you want to heckle NASA for making a mistake every once in a while, consider that they just managed to land two identical robots on opposite sides of Mars, steer them around, take pictures, drill rock samples, and send all the data back to Earth.
Jeremy, if I could get a low-foam, vente soy milk half-caf latte on the moon, I'd endorse putting a Starbux there.
Let's admit it, guys. NASA is a waste of money. it is a race & nothing more. There will be a lot of bs comments coming my way for saying this, but we must understand the true problems that exist here on earth before we can go into outer space and find cool new plants and see whether mars has bloody water. it is all bs if you look at it from the perspective of the dying or hungry. What great minds we have calculating the density of various planets light years away when those very same brain cells could be contemplating cures for various diseases or possibly ways to end world hunger forever.
i shake my head when i see these extremely smart individuals talking frivolously about crap on tv while there is so much shit to worry about elsewhere in the world.
there is a bloody time for everything, alright.
What makes you think that some NASA scientist would make a brilliant cancer researcher? Our brain can handle anything but people lean to what they like. They look at the stars and wonder and they probably get how a cancer cell works, but that’s not their thing. They might get it but they could suck at it.
We are spoiled by success. NASA had some screw ups but they kept us happy during the 90's with successful shuttle trips, the Hubble space telescope, the international space station and the first mars rovers. But this is rocket science, its hard stuff. They work with machines that have millions of parts that have to go to the hostile environment of space and come back. I'm glad they fail from time to time, it helps them learn where the flaws are. The loss of funds is annoying, the lost of life hurts, but this is really a good thing they are doing for all of us.
Julio C.,
I agree with you whole-heartedly. I think for lack of a better phrase NASA is a necessary evil. No one ever complained while NASA was making progress and putting people on the moon.
Granted, it has been a few decades since something of that magnatude was achived, but it'll only be a matter of time before it happens again. And once it does, no one will be complaining about how many of thier tax dollars have been "wasted" on space exploration.
Oh, and Beerzie, I like the thought of a caramel machiatto in space too, but I just wouldn't be able to justify building one on a different planet.
What if there really was life there? I'd be upset if some alien built a crappy alien food resturant in my back yard.
I think the funniest thing about this whole mess is how Nasa is responding - "Yeah, so it crashed... sorry it didn't pan out."
The crash is part of a vast conspiracy. The data that Genesis had collected was far too dangerous for unclassified distribution.
Duh.
:-)
"The spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver."
But it's sad that such an involved mission -- one where mere molecules are collected, one that extended beyond the moon -- could possibly have failed because some firecrackers weren't lit. I bet the scientists who were smart enough to go looking for the charged particles, smart enough to figure out how to collect such material and smart enough to figure out how to maneuver a clam shell into and out of space are smart enough to figure out how to extract what they need from the discs.
The moon?! Where have you been Greg? We're going to Mars! Or as George W. Bush likes to call it - Pluto.
I wonder if the engineers who created the atom collecting part are planning a hit on the engineers who crafted explosive bolts that failed. I you live in Denver and see a plain-wrapped, Ford Taurus convoy rollin' up, duck fast.
Blake's right, Mars is our destination. We've been to the moon and from what they say, there isn't really anything interesting up there. :)
Don't believe me? It's going to happen within the next 30 years. Why else would this website exist?
Faisal
Don't pat yourself on the back to much for championing "earthly" causes in place of the money "wasted" by NASA just being cool...
Ask the diabetic with an insulin pump...a heart patient with a new pacemaker...or the arthritis sufferer who can mange their pain to live a normal life, whether they feel NASA's work is frivolous. Seeing as the technology that is helping them live better lives can be traced at least in part to the space program - I would think they are probably in favor of it.
PErhaps you should stop shaking your head and listen more closely when those smart individuals speak.