While talking about the Genesis mission a week or two ago, a couple friends
and I reminded ourselves that this is "Project Scoop".  If that sounds
familiar, it should if you are a sci-fi fan - a young Michael Crichton wrote
the novel that the 1971 movie "The Andromeda Strain" was based on.  It's been
a couple years since I last saw that movie - I need to go rent it.  It is
about an unmanned U.S. spacecraft that lands near Peidmont Arizona (is that a
real place?  I should go visit there if so!) with some unknown biohazard that
wipes out all but two of the citizens of the small town.  Excellent story and
gave me the creeps the first time I saw it when I was about 11 or 12,
especially when the first team rolls into poor ol' Peidmont and discovers all
the dead residents....

Seriously, though, there were some potential hazards on Genesis that needed
to be addressed before they can finish recovering the remains of the
spacecraft, all of them man-made.  First, there is a pyrotechnic mortar
device that apparently did not fire that would have deployed the drogue chute
- it was presumably still live and would need to be safed.  Also there are
some batteries on board that could have leaked hazardous material and perhaps
a few other items that went unmentioned in the press conference this morning.  
They had contingency procedures already in place that they unfortunately had
to dust off and make use of, so they'd already thought about this scenario.  
I did see one guy with a mask on as he approached the spacecraft.  Not the
first guy, though.

Jim.

On Wed, 8 Sep 2004 trisha@brasher.com wrote:

> 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
> 

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/