Genesis is the first mission to bring a piece of the Sun to Earth.

The NASA mission spent two years bathing in the Solar Wind, a stream of particles emitted by the Sun. Particles from the Solar Wind became embedded in the spacecraft's collector arrays, which consist of wafers made from materials such as silicon and diamond.

In September 2004, Genesis returned to Earth - a little ahead of schedule. The parachutes that should have slowed the capsule during its descent did not open and the capsule hit the ground travelling at nearly 320 kilometres per hour. Despite this, the project team has managed to recover some samples, which are now being analysed in laboratories around the world, including the Open University.

UK Involvement

The Open University was involved in developing the Solar Wind Concentrator instrument. The instrument has been retrieved from the capsule wreckage and three of four target segments are intact. The good condition of the samples means that wafers containing particles of the Solar Wind were delivered as planned to the OU for analysis in 2005.

For more details, click on the UK involvement map.

Genesis Links

Genesis mission homepage

Open University's Genesis pages

MSSL's introduction to the Solar Wind