[Az-Geocaching] NASA in mourning

[listserv@azgeocaching.com]

Agreed with all of that. I watched the video also. I especially liked the first guy on the scene, carefully edging up to it, half crouching....I'm thinking....does the guy need a special suit to approach that thing that was just in space?
(Too Much Star Trek!)
Trisha

----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Scotti <jscotti@pirl.lpl.Arizona.EDU>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 13:37:18 -0700 (MST)
To: Arizona Geocaching <listserv@azgeocaching.com>
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] NASA in mourning

> Hey Trisha,
>    I watched the NASA TV live broadcast of the Genesis entry and recovery
> this morning.  They showed the usual video feeds from the control centers and
> the choppers flying in formation preparing for the recovery and then they
> used a long range camera to pick up the spacecraft as it entered overhead,
> first at around 400,000 feet.  It was just a white speck against the blue
> sky.  They continued following it and it looked sorta normal (I wasn't sure
> exactly when things should be happening, so I was relying on the NASA
> commentator).  You could see the speck change in brightness a little and they
> mentioned it was down to 200,000 feet (it didn't take long to go from 400K to
> 200K feet!).  The image got a little clearer and then it started to look a
> little oblong and wobbly - I thought it might be an out of focus camera
> image, but then it soon was obviously elongated and was clearly the
> spacecraft spinning and tumbling it looked like.  I was thinking - "Wow, this
> is an excellent camera view, now where's the drogue chute or main chute?"  
> As it descended, the spinning looked less tumbly and more wobbly and I'm
> still wondering about the parachute as it now fills about 20% of the screen
> when suddenly it vanished and then it was obvious that the camera was now
> pointed at the ground as it stopped and backed up.  I was thinking "Uh Oh,
> this can't be good!  Did we really just see what I think we saw?" when they
> finally put up an image of the spacecraft, half buried in the dirt with what
> looked like an impact ejecta blanket around it.  A bit later, they had the
> video from one of the choppers and it was obvious that the spacecraft was
> badly damaged with a crack across the spacecraft and it was also split in the
> middle and half buried in its impact crater.
>    But hey, the re-entry targeting was right on - it impacted right about
> where it was supposed to!  It impacted at about 193 miles per hour (terminal
> velocity for the spacecraft freefalling through the atmosphere).  I was
> thinking while looking at the images from the chopper that was circling and
> showing the first of the recovery crew arriving onsite in other helicopters
> that I should make it a virtual geocache, especially when I heard them
> announce the preliminary coordinates of the crash site: N40d 07' 40", W113d
> 30' 29".  Unfortunately, that is on a military base, so I don't think it
> would be accessible to use civilians....
> 
> Jim.
> 
> On Wed, 8 Sep 2004 trisha@brasher.com wrote:
> 
> > This is a bit off topic (unless they use GPS technology?) but we probably
> > lost the data from the Genesis project (geez, I sound like a Star Trek
> > Movie!) this morning.
> > 
> > The project, collecting atoms and data from the sun for the past 4 years
> > (at a cost of, um, 260 mill) was supposed to re-enter and land with the
> > help of parachutes, and they were even worried about a chute-controlled
> > landing....they had stunt chopper pilots ready to snag the chute to give
> > it an even softer landing.
> > 
> > Instead, the chutes failed to open and the refrigerator-sized capsule
> > crashed to earth in Utah, creating a big crator. All that technology and
> > the CHUTE fails??
> > 
> > We hope they can recover some of the data. In the meantime, NASA flags
> > are at half mast (just kidding)
> > 
> > Jim, anything to add?
> > 
> > Trisha "Lightning"
> > Prescott Vly
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> 
> Jim Scotti
> Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/    
> 
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