Scientists retrieve some intact material from space capsule wreckage

By Paul Foy
The Associated Press

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"We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our science goals," said physicist Roger C. Wiens of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designed one of the devices that trapped the solar bits during the 884-day mission.

"We want to try to get out as much of those (wafers) as we can," he said.

The approximately 350 palm-sized wafers make up the five disks that were open to the solar wind during the mission, collecting atoms from the sun.

The Genesis space capsule crashed while returning to Earth on Wednesday, slamming into the ground at nearly 200 mph after parachutes failed to open. It cracked open like a clamshell, and left an inner canister containing the disks badly damaged.

Scientists have been peering inside the capsule with flashlights and mirrors, finding intact parts. They had feared the wafers shattered like glass in the crash, and many of them did. But they were surprised to find some wafers fully intact, and were characterizing it as good news.

The scientists are now working to get inside the wreckage and pull out the internal canister holding the wafers.

"We're going to be doing some sawing and some snipping" Saturday and Monday, said Don Sevilla, Genesis payload manager for the Jet Propulsion laboratory. The scientists have been collecting tools for the job.

Scientists won't touch the most sensitive parts of the inner capsule until they can determine how to clean them without wiping away precious atoms. "This is something that's going to take months," Sevilla said.

NASA continues to probe what kept the capsule's parachutes from deploying. Engineers are focusing on electronic controls or sensors that were supposed to trigger explosives that release the chutes, Sevilla said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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