On Sept. 8, 2004, NASA’s Genesis spacecraft crash-landed in Utah after its parachutes didn’t deploy.
Genesis was NASA’s first sample-return mission because the Apollo program and the primary to deliver again samples from anyplace farther than the moon. The spacecraft picked up solar wind particles whereas orbiting the L1 Lagrange level, which is about 1 million miles away from Earth. L1 is a “candy spot” between the Earth and the sun, the place the gravitational pull from each objects balances out.
Genesis collected samples of the solar wind utilizing arrays product of ultrathin semiconductors known as “wafers.” Atoms and ions floating round in space caught to those wafers, and Genesis was supposed to deliver them again safely. However that did not occur, as a result of its parachute did not work.
Genesis tumbled from the sky and slammed into the Utah desert. Scientists actually needed to choose up the items. The wafers containing all their samples had shattered into hundreds of little shards. Fortunately, scientists were still able to salvage some of the samples.
On This Day in House Archive!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
Nonetheless not sufficient space? Do not forget to take a look at our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week.
Comply with us @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
