[meteorite-list] Stardust to Cast a Boom and a Glow Over Utah's Pre-Dawn West Desert

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jan 11 12:51:55 2006
Message-ID: <200601111750.k0BHoHp13470_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://sltrib.com/utah/ci_3390860

Stardust to cast a boom and a glow over Utah's pre-dawn west desert
By Greg Lavine
The Salt Lake Tribune
January 11, 2006

Insomniacs and die-hard space buffs in northern Nevada and western Utah
may want to step outside in the early hours Sunday to catch a NASA-made
light show.

The Stardust mission's sample return cannister is expected to
brighten the morning skies as it streaks toward a landing in Utah's west
desert.

"This thing will light up the night sky for a brief period of time,"
said Tom Duxbury, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif.

The 100-pound capsule, carrying pieces of a comet, will punch through
the atmosphere faster than any previous human-made object. NASA
officials estimate the speed will be 28,860 mph, more than enough to
create a sonic boom.

(The previous record-holder for fastest re-entry for a man-made
object belongs to the Apollo 10 command module, which came through at
24,861 mph on May 26, 1969.)

Patrick Wiggins is among a handful of Utahns planning to be in
Wendover to see the sound-and-light show.

"That's going to be a hoot to hear the boom coming in," said Wiggins,
who is NASA's solar system ambassador for Utah.

About a dozen people are planning an early-morning rendezvous at
Wendover Airfield to witness a piece of space history.

"It's a fun kind of thing, but you have to be into it," he said.

At 2:57 a.m. on Sunday, Stardust will slice through the atmosphere at
an altitude of 410,000 feet over northern Nevada.

About two minutes later, when the probe reaches 10,000 feet, a drogue
parachute will open, followed shortly after by the main parachute. NASA
believes it has avoided the technical problems that doomed the Genesis
probe to smash into the west desert in 2004.

The Genesis mission, designed to return pieces of the sun, was
supposed to deploy a parachute so a helicopter could snag the probe in
mid-air. A key sensor was installed improperly, which prevented the
parachute from operating.

An investigator said Lockheed Martin failed to perform a critical
prelaunch test that could have prevented the $264 million Genesis
capsule from smashing into the Earth at nearly 200 mph.

The test would have found that switches designed to trigger the
release of the capsule's parachutes were installed backward, said
Michael Ryschkewitsch, chairman of the Genesis Mishap Investigation Board.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems had decided to skip the prelaunch test
and instead compare the Genesis circuits to the design of an
earlier-built capsule that had passed the test, said company spokesman
Buddy Nelson.

That comparison capsule happens to be Stardust.

But a NASA team reviewing blueprints and photos of the Stardust
equipment found that this probe did not have the same problem as
Genesis, said Ed Hirst, JPL's mission system manager.

Scientists managed to salvage much of the science from the Genesis
crash. The mission caught particles of solar wind to help researchers
better understand the makeup of the sun.

In contrast, Stardust is bringing home bits of comet Wild 2.
Researchers said the comet holds pieces left over from the formation of
our solar system.

These particles are considered the building blocks of planets and the
sun, which could answer questions about the origins of the solar system.

If all goes well, the Stardust capsule should touch down on the
desert floor at about 10 mph on the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and
Training Range. A recovery crew then will head out to bring the probe to
a clean-room at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground. The samples then
will be transported to NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.
Received on Wed 11 Jan 2006 12:50:16 PM PST