NEWS: One Hell of a Game of Catch

GEEK: One Hell of a Game of Catch

Tomorrow over the Utah desert, two helicopter stunt pilots will attempt to snatch the Genesis capsule – a 400 pound NASA probe that has been collecting solar wind particles from the sun – out of mid-air as it travels at 400 feet-per-minute towards the Earth. And if that wasn’t enough pressure, the feat will be broadcast live, worldwide, over NASA television.

Scientists hope to use the solar wind particles to “reconstruct the chemical origin of the sun and its family of planets,” as well as “learn the precise composition of the sun.”

Beats tossing the old ball around in the back yard with dad, doesn’t it?

this I have to see

So it sounds like the hardest thing will just be getting the helicopters into position. When you're trying to catch something moving ~300 miles an hour, there's only so much last-minute course correction you can do it it doesn't come down where you think it should, or if you aren't where you think you are. Seems like GPS devices to give true position of the 'copters would go a long way towards making this possible. Wonder what tools NASA has to track the incoming sat during re-entry? (You can't get any information to speak of by radio from anything during the first part of re-entry. The ionization from the friction over the hull trashes any signal you'd try to get out. So: The sat will NOT be reporting its own position for much of the important time frame. Some kind of ground observation station(s) figuring out the trajectory it actually took, I suppose?

But... five chances? How exactly will they get five chances? Obviously it's not going to pass the same batch of helicopters 5 times. Anyone know what this 5 chances business is?

quote from the genesis mission homepage:

"Later this month, Genesis will execute the first in a series of trajectory maneuvers that will place the spacecraft on a route toward Earth. On Sept. 8, 2004, the spacecraft will dispatch a sample-return capsule containing its solar booty"


solar booty...hee hee

I hope there's some good footage taken of this.

That can't be right.....400 feet per minute is very slow.....Like less than five mph......it would have to be moving a lot faster than that.....400 feet per second (approximately 270 mph or 438 kmph) would make a lot more sense.

i want to see pictures of space booty.

That's what I was wondering. You can't maneuver a helicopter to get two chances, let alone five.

I'd watch it, but I don't get the Boring Network.

NASA needs to get priorities straight. If the pilots get nervous because of the coverage, don't cover it. Why risk millions in research just so the NASA popularity thermometer can go up a few points.

perhaps the popularity thermometer affects how many millions is made available to them in the first place?

Which is a problem in and of itself. The funding should be based on research and findings, not on who's voted prom king.

Boy, what could possible go wrong with this plan? The only thing I know about this is what I just read here. Why didn’t they just leave it up until a shuttle mission could get it? Seems like a better idea than a 400 mile an hour version of catch.

It is probably filled with alien space cum..the world is doomed

It's filled with shaky space booty from the sun. If I catch it can I keep it?

Hopefully it's free to watch

Five sets of copters, each at different altitudes and N/S/E/W coordinates?

I'm watching the coverage right now. The capsule has a large parachute, which will slow it down quite a bit, and they anticipate that it will be slow enough to reposition the helicpoters five times.

Well, that's hardly 400 miles per hour, now is it.

no! In fact it's almost like 400 feet per minute.

More like 100 miles per hour… The chute and airfoil did not deploy, and the capsule just slammed into the ground.

wow. it's like the superbowl for nasa fans.
wonder who's gonna win?

I'd say the ground won. But sinse it only happened a few minutes ago i can't find a story to link to.

D'oh!

Butterfingers.

That is so sad.