Last year the Genesis probe crashed into the desert and a good number of the collector plates were recovered, and are being analysed by people at Los Alamos. But we have not heard a single peep about this in a long time, except an April 2005 press release saying that the fragments are in remarkably good shape.

I clicked on the "Ask A Scientist" link from the Genesis website and sent this message to Derek W. Blackway:
I'll post here when I get a reply.

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Thanks for asking the question. I'll be very interested in whatever you can find out.

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I got this reply from Derek Blackway:
In short there is a thin film covering every one of the collectors, and they are studying how to remove the film without interfering with the measurments of the nuclei in the solar wind.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Cool, thanks Anton for taking the initiative to ask this question, I was wondering what was taking so long myself...

One question though, what did they expect to find when they sent the probe up?

Yes, thanks much!

Interesting how things like this work in the "real world"

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"Don't look for problems . . . look for solutions!"

The film of RTV may be a Godsend...allowing separation of pre- and post- Utah desert particles to the substrate.

....But, the landing failure truly compromised the mission: If unexpected dirt is present, how can it be quantified and separated from Utah dirt?

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jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?

From the 2006 LPSC:

New Scientist: Crashed Genesis probe delivers solar wind

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good article

I also read about this one in Indian newspaper that : the solar wind was gathered in the aperatus, but the machine fell into the sands, it was not shown there in the newspaper whether the genesis was ruined or not, it was only said that the "solar wind was caught by the genesis during the mission", now I have not available that paper cutting.

sunil

The Genesis probe did indeed impact into the western desert of the United States. This was due to accelerometers that were installed the wrong way. The probe didn't "sense" when it was time to deploy its parachutes and impacted at about 200 mph. The probe casing was breached and many of the collection wafers were broken.

However, the Genesis team believes they will be able to extract useful material from the wafers and still be able to to some good science. You can read more about the project here.

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"A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent." -- Elbert Hubbard

thanks Hamlet for the information and the link.

Genesis findings solve Apollo lunar soil mystery

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I keep telling my wife that going out with lots of other women is a great way of better understanding her, but she doesn't seem to be impressed by my scientific approach to our relationship.

Seriously though, these are interesting findings. And it's good to hear that Genesis still is able to give scientific results after its, shall we say pronouced return to the earth's surface.

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It also is more evidence against the hoax believers who say the lunar samples were created in a lab. How could scientists almost 40 years ago have created fake moon rocks that would agree with an experiment that wasn't even thought about (Genesis) back then?

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One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

That reminds me of part of Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez the Astronaut routine:

Interviewer: Mr. Jimenez, where will you be landing when you return to Earth
Jose: Nevada!
Interviewer: Nevada?
Jose: Yes, they say I will land in Nevada when I return to the earth. Just how far into the earth, well....

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Genesis Finding: Earth Has a Problem

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Ok, so I'm not normal. I knew that...

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.