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| This NASA
television image shows the Genesis return capsule on the
ground as it landed in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.(AFP/NASA
TV-HO) | |
A space capsule returning solar particles to Earth crashed in the
Utah desert on September 8th after its parachute failed to open, but
scientists were hoping that the star dust inside might have been
saved.
A Hollywood stunt pilot was supposed to snag the Genesis
capsule as it floated toward Earth on a parachute at the end of its
three-year mission to collect solar ions.
But the capsule's parachutes failed to open, and the spacecraft tumbled
out of control and struck the ground at 193 miles per hour six minutes
after entering Earth's atmosphere.
The flight had gone smoothly until moments before impact, which left
the 450-pound capsule half buried in the sand about 31 miles from the U.S.
Army's Dugway Proving Ground, where the Genesis team watched a live aerial
broadcast of the events.
"Certainly now we are in a situation where the scientists ... are going
to have to deal with a lot more contamination than they were hoping
for," Genesis project manager Don Sweetnam said at a briefing at Dugway
shortly after the crash.
Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, where the mission was based, said he was "still hopeful."
"All the data is there," Elachi said. "The question is: 'How
contaminated is it?' It will make it much harder to analyze."
The spacecraft collected ions that had been blown by solar winds on
wafers of silicon, diamond, sapphire, gold and other materials.
It was the first extraterrestrial matter to be returned to Earth by a
spacecraft since the U.S. Apollo and Soviet Luna missions brought back
moon rocks in the 1970s.
Scientists hoped that study of the materials would yield insights about
the early formation of planets and the dawn of the solar system.
An initial check of the spacecraft showed that several pyrotechnic devices failed to fire
and deploy the chutes, but the reason for the multiple failures was
unclear, Andrew Dantzler, NASA solar system division director, said.
(Agencies) |
9月8日，由于降落傘出現(xiàn)故障無法打開，美國“起源”號(hào)太陽探測(cè)飛船的返回艙一頭栽進(jìn)猶他州的沙漠中。“起源”號(hào)返回艙的任務(wù)是將采集到的太陽離子送回地球。但是科學(xué)家們?nèi)匀幌Ｍ搩?nèi)的外星物質(zhì)能夠被保存下來。
三年來，“起源”號(hào)太陽探測(cè)飛船的主要任務(wù)就是收集太陽粒子。在完成該使命后，飛船借助降落傘返回地球。按計(jì)劃，一位好萊塢的特技飛行員將對(duì)返回艙實(shí)施空中攔截。
但是由于返回艙的降落傘未能打開，返回艙失去控制，在空中翻轉(zhuǎn)。在進(jìn)入地球大氣層6分鐘后，以每小時(shí)193英里的速度一頭栽到沙漠中。
撞擊發(fā)生前，飛船的飛行狀況一直很平穩(wěn)。這次撞擊使450磅重的返回艙一半陷入了距美軍杜格威試驗(yàn)基地31英里遠(yuǎn)的沙漠中。“起源”號(hào)研究小組在試驗(yàn)基地觀看了現(xiàn)場(chǎng)直播。
撞擊發(fā)生后，隨即在杜格威試驗(yàn)基地召開了簡要的情況介紹會(huì)。會(huì)上，“起源”號(hào)項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人唐·斯威特納姆說：“的確，現(xiàn)在我們的處境是：科學(xué)家們將不得不處理比想象中要多得多的污染。”
位于加利福尼亞帕薩迪納的噴氣推進(jìn)實(shí)驗(yàn)室負(fù)責(zé)人查爾斯·葉拉奇說他仍然“抱有希望”。該實(shí)驗(yàn)室也是此次任務(wù)的基地之一。
葉拉奇說：“所有的數(shù)據(jù)都在返回艙里。問題是：‘受到污染的程度有多嚴(yán)重？' 污染會(huì)使對(duì)數(shù)據(jù)的分析工作變得更加困難。”
“起源”號(hào)太陽探測(cè)飛船用各種材料的晶片來收集被太陽風(fēng)吹來的太陽粒子，其中包括硅、鉆石、藍(lán)寶石、金子和其它物質(zhì)制成的晶片。
自上世紀(jì)70年代美國“阿波羅”號(hào)和前蘇聯(lián)“月球”號(hào)航天飛船帶回月球巖石采集樣本以來，這些太陽粒子是首批由太空飛船帶回地球的外星物質(zhì)。
科學(xué)家們希望對(duì)這些物質(zhì)的研究能幫助人們解開行星和太陽系的起源之謎。
美國國家宇航局太陽系分部負(fù)責(zé)人安德魯·丹澤爾說，對(duì)返回艙的初步檢查顯示幾個(gè)點(diǎn)火裝置點(diǎn)火失敗，導(dǎo)致降落傘未能打開，但是導(dǎo)致重大失敗的原因尚不清楚。
（中國日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2004-09-10 10:34