[meteorite-list] NASA's Stardust

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jan 15 04:44:23 2006
Message-ID: <20060115094418.93795.qmail_at_web33108.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

It was a great time! I wish I was home to try and
witness the Stardust Mission's fiery end, but I am
thousands of miles away and will have to settle for
crappy CNN International video.
Tucson is right around the corner, and I have some new
goodies to present to the world, so be sure and stop
by my room for some meteorites that will blow your
mind.
Mike Farmer

--- Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_comcast.net> wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> This is a very interesting subject for me for
> several reasons. The number
> one reason is that while Mike Farmer and I were
> doing a public talk at the
> University of Washington, Dr. Don Brownlee,
> Stardust's principal
> investigator was in attendance and asked us several
> questions demonstrating
> an interest in what we had to say. He is among the
> nicest people you could
> hope to meet and has a sincere interest in
> meteoritics. As a matter of fact,
> micrometeorites carry his name, Brownlee Particles!
> We also met NASA's
> Michael Zolenski, who flew out to present his
> findings on Tagish Lake,
> attended dinner with us after the talks. Imagine
> Mike Farmer, Greg, and I
> having a few brews with these world renown scientist
> including Dr. Tony
> Irving who was in charge of putting together these
> presentations. It may
> seem unlikely but we had some great conversations
> that I will never forget.
> It is noteworthy to see how a common interest in
> meteorites can bridge the
> gaps between collectors, dealers and scientists
> alike.
>
> I will be up all night watching with anticipation
> the outcome of this
> historic material return mission.
>
> Kind Regards,
>
> ------------------------------------
> Adam Hupe
> The Hupe Collection
> Team LunarRock
> IMCA 2185
> raremeteorites_at_comcast.net
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List"
> <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 9:32 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] NASA's Stardust Passes
> Moon,Just Hours Away From
> Earth Return
>
>
> >
> > MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
> > JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
> > CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
> > NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
> > PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
> > http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
> >
> > D.C. Agle (818) 354-5011
> > Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> >
> > Dwayne Brown/Merrilee Fellows (202)
> 358-1726/(818) 393-0754
> > NASA Headquarters, Washington
> >
> > NEWS RELEASE 2006-008 January 14, 2006
> >
> > NASA'S STARDUST PASSES MOON, JUST HOURS AWAY FROM
> EARTH RETURN
> >
> > Less than one day of space travel separates Earth
> and history's first
> > comet sample return mission. Today at 9:30 a.m.
> Pacific time
> > (10:30 a.m. Mountain time), the Stardust
> spacecraft will cross the moon's
> > orbit as the craft makes its way toward Earth.
> >
> > The final 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles) of
> the mission to return a
> > capsule containing cometary particles to Earth
> will take just 16 hours
> > and 27 minutes. It took the Apollo astronauts
> about three days to make the
> > same journey.
> >
> > "Our entire flight and recovery team will be
> watching this final leg of
> our
> > flight with tremendous expectation as we implement
> a precise celestial
> ballet
> > in delivering our capsule to Earth," said Stardust
> Project Manager Tom
> Duxbury
> > of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
> Calif. "We feel like
> parents
> > awaiting the return of a child who left us young
> and innocent, who now
> > returns holding answers to the most profound
> questions of our solar
> system."
> >
> > Prior to passing the moon's orbit, the spacecraft
> performed a final
> maneuver
> > to place it on a precise path to reach its landing
> target on the Utah Test
> > and Training Range. The burn, which took place
> yesterday at 8:53 p.m.
> Pacific
> > time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time), took 58.5 seconds
> to complete and changed
> the
> > spacecraft's velocity by 2.9 mph. At the time of
> the burn the spacecraft
> was
> > about 706,000 kilometers (439,000 miles) from
> Earth.
> >
> > NASA's Stardust mission has traveled about 4.5
> billion kilometers (2.88
> > billion miles) during its seven year round-trip
> odyssey. It is a journey
> that
> > carried it around the sun three times and beyond
> Mars and the asteroid
> belt --
> > as far out as half-way to Jupiter. This cosmic
> voyage was in quest of
> cometary
> > and interstellar dust particles, which scientists
> believe will help
> provide
> > answers to fundamental questions about comets and
> the origins of the solar
> > system.
> >
> > "With the information we gathered during our
> encounter with comet Wild 2
> in
> > Jan. 2004, Stardust has already provided us with
> some remarkable science,"
> > said Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust principal
> investigator at the University
> of
> > Washington, Seattle. "With the return of cometary
> samples, we'll be able
> to
> > work with the actual building materials of the
> solar system as they were
> when
> > the solar system was formed. It will be a great
> day for science."
> >
> > The last few hours of the Stardust mission will be
> filled with significant
> > milestones. Today at about 8:15 p.m. Pacific time
> (9:15 p.m. Mountain
> time),
> > mission controllers will command the spacecraft to
> begin the
> > computer-controlled sequence that will release the
> sample return capsule.
> >
> > At 9:56 p.m. Pacific time (10:56 p.m. Mountain
> time), the Stardust
> spacecraft
> > will complete the sequence by severing the
> umbilical cables between
> spacecraft
> > and capsule. One minute later, springs aboard the
> spacecraft will
> literally
> > push the capsule away, putting it into its
> trajectory toward the Utah Test
> > and Training Range. Fifteen minutes later, the
> "mother ship," the
> Stardust
> > spacecraft, will perform a maneuver to enter orbit
> around the sun.
> >
> > At 1:57 a.m. Pacific time (2:57 a.m. Mountain
> time), four hours after
> being
> > released by the Stardust spacecraft, the capsule
> will enter Earth's
> atmosphere
> > at an altitude of 125 kilometers (410,000 feet)
> over Northern California.
> At
> > this point it will be 20 kilometers (12.43 miles)
> east of the Pacific
> coast and
> > 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) south of the
> Oregon-California
=== message truncated ===
Received on Sun 15 Jan 2006 04:44:18 AM PST