WTF! with the Genesis sample return capsule smashing into the desert one thing has got me wondering. What were those peiple thinking when they approached the wreckage of the capsule.

Has anyone read the Micheal Crihton book "The Andromeda Strain" or seen the movie for that matter. I think a bit of caution should be used when sifting thru the pieces. God knows what that capsule came in contact with on it's mission to the Sun. I might be a wee bit paranoid but geeze fellas lets use a bit of common sense!

Even the Apollo astronauts were put in isolation upon return from the moon missions. :confused:

Both! The movie was good but the book was great. I didn't make the connection but now that you mention it, I see the relationship.

radiation?

Nope!

Contamination from a space borne contagion. In The Andromeda Strain a capsule that we sent up came back down but when the people that retrieved it started dying (their blood was reduced to powder) it was dicovered that the capsule had aquired a space born contaminate that reproduced and was the size of a grain of sand. Pretty interesting reading but available on DVD for those lazy types. The book was WAY better than the movie as is all screenplays based on books.

We have no way of knowing what that capsule brought back down with it. I think some isolation precautions should have been used to prevent such a thing from happening.

the main purpose of the Genesis probe was to bring back solar atoms, right?

Yes. To study the evolution of the solar system.

In the Andromeda Strain the capsule was a military program to use space germs as bio-weapons.

I don't know the particulars of all the genesis mission but then what do you think about all of the times the space shuttles have gone up and down. They surely picked up tons of stuff from being out there. Sure it may not be L1 orbit but LEO would still fill you with a ton of dust and particles. I don't think we put the shuttle in a giant clean room.. i could be wrong .. though.. besides I likes Sphere better than andromeda strain. :p

The Sphere was an ok book but the movie just didn't work IMO.

BTW, I think Andromeda Strain pre-dates the space shuttle.

andromeda strain is a kick ass sci-fi story... maybe one of the coolest of all time.

oh, and i heard that the genesis probe only hit the earth at 190mph or something... all icould think was "is that all?? why were they so worried about catching it and all that bs??"

sometimes you just gotta wonder about those eggheads, why not just design it to crash?

...I visited JPL (Pasadena) this last year. The reason this probe is different than the shuttle or other probes is because it traveled away from the protection of the magnetic field of the Earth (the Van Allen belt; check the original "Voyage to the bottom of the sea" movie - jk). The "Solar wind" is what they where wanting to capture particles from.

At JPL, they had on display, this like four inch stuff that looked like smoked glass (Think of a glass of water with a drop of milk in it to make it look slighyly unclear). It's made of silicon (which is "glass" of course), but the density is exetremely light. You couldn't touch it but it's said to weigh almost nothing. It was suppose to catch fast moving particles like a catcher's mit.

Well we'll see if any of that stuff has preserved anything after an abrupt change in velocity from even 190 mph to 0 mph.

I still think it was a cool mission, and considering how we are all typing away on our computers, that started with advancements to make computers even smaller and faster (think luner space module with and 80 lbs. computer for guidance).....any space mission seems to "cascade" back to us with other benefits.

....They ought to do it again.