Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Genesis just augered in.

Yeah, I'd call that "augered in".

In case you're wondering, I was not involved in designing the aeroshell for Genesis. They did ask me to look at it after it was launched. It's a clean design. The aeroshell half angle was 59.8 deg. which is dead-nuts correct for air. The peak heat flux was 380 watts/cm^2 which is not high for a carbon-carbon heat shield. The design appears to be very conservative. I don't think the thermal protection system should have failed. There must have been a parachute deployment problem. I've always throught that parasails were dodgy. I estimate it was going 48 meters/sec when it augered-in.

Keep in mind, our glass is 7/8 full. Both MER A and B succeeded beyond everyone's wildest dreams. Cassini also survived crazed moonbats, Jupiter flyby and the Saturn Orbit Injection burn. I feel bad for the guys involved with Genesis. Murphy takes his toll from time to time.

Gary

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