[meteorite-list] Stardust Capsule: Safe Landing, Now The Science

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jan 16 03:04:16 2006
Message-ID: <200601160802.k0G82eg28175_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://space.com/missionlaunches/060115_stardust_postlanding.html

Stardust Capsule: Safe Landing, Now The Science
By Leonard David
space.com
15 January 2006

Scientists and engineers are ecstatic with the landing and
overall condition of the Stardust sample return capsule recovered today
in Utah after a 2.9 billion mile round-trip space voyage.

A bit of luck also played a part too.

"This thing went like clockwork," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena,
California at a post-landing press briefing held today at a command
conference room at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

Duxbury said that the capsule's Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR)
touch down involved some element of luck. The area was experiencing a
big storm as the capsule raced toward its pre-determined, pre-dawn
desert landing zone.

"There was a window in that storm - we came right through that window,"
Duxbury said.

Wind drift

While still within a large landing ellipse, storm winds caused the
parachute-dangling capsule to drift more north than had been predicted.
The capsule was on its main parachute for some six minutes before
touching ground.

"It took a bit of time to go find it," said Joe Vellinga, Deputy
Recovery Operations Manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
He said that the sample return capsule tumbled across the desert
landscape on landing, represented by five marks on the ground.

"There's a little bit of mud on the [capsule's] nose - it looks to be in
absolutely excellent condition," Vellinga told reporters.

Recovery teams found the detached parachute a few feet away. Sitting on
its side, the apparently none the worse for wear capsule "didn't even
work up a sweat," Duxbury noted.

Collected works

The small capsule was double-bagged by ground teams and moved to a
special clean room within the UTTR.

Work is now underway to remove a canister from within the landed
capsule, said Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the
University of Washington, Seattle.

Stardust's collected works - miniscule specimens of interstellar dust and
comet particles snagged during its seven-year trek - are contained within
that canister.

Once the canister is removed it will be shipped to a special laboratory
at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. At JSC, the
canister will be opened and a collector grid will be removed to begin
surveying how many cometary and interstellar samples have been caught
and brought back to Earth.

Brownlee said "opening day" for the canister at JSC is this coming
Tuesday. Some 150 researchers from around the world are ready to carry
out preliminary looks at the returned samples, he said.

"Over the coming weeks, months and years, I hope you'll be hearing a lot
about this - a lot of new information from the samples," Brownlee added.

Mighty little spacecraft

Meanwhile, still up in space, is the Stardust "mother craft" that
successfully ejected the sample return capsule.

"Our mighty little spacecraft is still out there," said JPL's Duxbury.
"This thing is still alive and well. It may have a future life as well,"
and is capable of further exploration of comets and asteroids, he said.

Mission controllers have placed the spacecraft into a "divert
maneuver" - to keep the hardware from hitting Earth. It has been put on an
orbit around the Sun.

After nearly seven years of space travel, the solar-powered Stardust and
onboard gear - including an operational navigation camera - have weathered
well. An expected 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of fuel should be left
onboard after the divert maneuver.

"NASA has no current plans for an extended mission," said Tom Morgan,
Stardust Program Scientist and Executive at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, D.C. However, individuals who wish to propose post-return
uses for the spacecraft to NASA may submit a proposal for the use of the
spacecraft in response to the current Discovery Announcement of
Opportunity, a document released on January 3, 2006, Morgan told
SPACE.com via email.

"If NASA declines to accept any of these proposals - or if none are
submitted - the spacecraft will be decommissioned," Morgan said.
Received on Mon 16 Jan 2006 03:02:39 AM PST