[meteorite-list] NASA's Stardust

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Jan 14 15:11:28 2006
Message-ID: <01a701c61946$ad387000$6401a8c0_at_c1720188a>

Hi List,

This is a very interesting subject for me for several reasons. The number
one reason is that while Mike Farmer and I were doing a public talk at the
University of Washington, Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust's principal
investigator was in attendance and asked us several questions demonstrating
an interest in what we had to say. He is among the nicest people you could
hope to meet and has a sincere interest in meteoritics. As a matter of fact,
micrometeorites carry his name, Brownlee Particles! We also met NASA's
Michael Zolenski, who flew out to present his findings on Tagish Lake,
attended dinner with us after the talks. Imagine Mike Farmer, Greg, and I
having a few brews with these world renown scientist including Dr. Tony
Irving who was in charge of putting together these presentations. It may
seem unlikely but we had some great conversations that I will never forget.
It is noteworthy to see how a common interest in meteorites can bridge the
gaps between collectors, dealers and scientists alike.

I will be up all night watching with anticipation the outcome of this
historic material return mission.

Kind Regards,

------------------------------------
Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
Team LunarRock
IMCA 2185
raremeteorites_at_comcast.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 9:32 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] NASA's Stardust Passes Moon,Just Hours Away From
Earth Return


>
> MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
> JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
> CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
> NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
> PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
>
> D.C. Agle (818) 354-5011
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
> Dwayne Brown/Merrilee Fellows (202) 358-1726/(818) 393-0754
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
>
> NEWS RELEASE 2006-008 January 14, 2006
>
> NASA'S STARDUST PASSES MOON, JUST HOURS AWAY FROM EARTH RETURN
>
> Less than one day of space travel separates Earth and history's first
> comet sample return mission. Today at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time
> (10:30 a.m. Mountain time), the Stardust spacecraft will cross the moon's
> orbit as the craft makes its way toward Earth.
>
> The final 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles) of the mission to return a
> capsule containing cometary particles to Earth will take just 16 hours
> and 27 minutes. It took the Apollo astronauts about three days to make the
> same journey.
>
> "Our entire flight and recovery team will be watching this final leg of
our
> flight with tremendous expectation as we implement a precise celestial
ballet
> in delivering our capsule to Earth," said Stardust Project Manager Tom
Duxbury
> of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We feel like
parents
> awaiting the return of a child who left us young and innocent, who now
> returns holding answers to the most profound questions of our solar
system."
>
> Prior to passing the moon's orbit, the spacecraft performed a final
maneuver
> to place it on a precise path to reach its landing target on the Utah Test
> and Training Range. The burn, which took place yesterday at 8:53 p.m.
Pacific
> time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time), took 58.5 seconds to complete and changed
the
> spacecraft's velocity by 2.9 mph. At the time of the burn the spacecraft
was
> about 706,000 kilometers (439,000 miles) from Earth.
>
> NASA's Stardust mission has traveled about 4.5 billion kilometers (2.88
> billion miles) during its seven year round-trip odyssey. It is a journey
that
> carried it around the sun three times and beyond Mars and the asteroid
belt --
> as far out as half-way to Jupiter. This cosmic voyage was in quest of
cometary
> and interstellar dust particles, which scientists believe will help
provide
> answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar
> system.
>
> "With the information we gathered during our encounter with comet Wild 2
in
> Jan. 2004, Stardust has already provided us with some remarkable science,"
> said Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator at the University
of
> Washington, Seattle. "With the return of cometary samples, we'll be able
to
> work with the actual building materials of the solar system as they were
when
> the solar system was formed. It will be a great day for science."
>
> The last few hours of the Stardust mission will be filled with significant
> milestones. Today at about 8:15 p.m. Pacific time (9:15 p.m. Mountain
time),
> mission controllers will command the spacecraft to begin the
> computer-controlled sequence that will release the sample return capsule.
>
> At 9:56 p.m. Pacific time (10:56 p.m. Mountain time), the Stardust
spacecraft
> will complete the sequence by severing the umbilical cables between
spacecraft
> and capsule. One minute later, springs aboard the spacecraft will
literally
> push the capsule away, putting it into its trajectory toward the Utah Test
> and Training Range. Fifteen minutes later, the "mother ship," the
Stardust
> spacecraft, will perform a maneuver to enter orbit around the sun.
>
> At 1:57 a.m. Pacific time (2:57 a.m. Mountain time), four hours after
being
> released by the Stardust spacecraft, the capsule will enter Earth's
atmosphere
> at an altitude of 125 kilometers (410,000 feet) over Northern California.
At
> this point it will be 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) east of the Pacific
coast and
> 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) south of the Oregon-California border. The
velocity
> of the sample return capsule as it enters Earth's atmosphere at 46,440
> kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour) will be the greatest of any
> human-made object on record. This will surpass the record set in May 1969
> during the return of the Apollo 10 command module.
>
> The Stardust sample return capsule will release a drogue parachute at an
> altitude of approximately 32 kilometers (105,000 feet). Once the capsule
has
> descended to an altitude of about 3 kilometers (10,000 feet) at 2:05 a.m.
> Pacific time (3:05 a.m. Mountain time), the main parachute will deploy.
> The capsule is scheduled to land on the salt flats of the Utah Test and
> Training Range at 2:12 a.m. Pacific time (3:12 a.m. Mountain time).
>
> If weather conditions allow, the recovery team will be flown by helicopter
> to recover the capsule and fly it to the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground,
Utah,
> for initial processing. If weather does not allow helicopters to fly,
special
> off-road vehicles will be used to transport the recovery team to retrieve
the
> capsule and return it to Dugway. The collector grid with cometary and
> interstellar samples will be moved to a special laboratory at NASA's
Johnson
> Space Center, Houston, where they will be preserved and studied by
scientists.
>
> The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Stardust
mission
> for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
> Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft.
>
> For information about the Stardust mission on the Web,
>
> visit http://www.nasa.gov/stardust .
>
> For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/home .
>
> - end -
>
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Received on Sat 14 Jan 2006 03:11:15 PM PST