Michael,
Yes, aerogel is the name.
And Twin Palms, apparently, is the place to hang out, though Sharon and I met on the Internet. We're getting married this fall after being together for a year and a half.
I'm told they might have used the kind of balloons they used on the recent Martian landings, but that would have greatly increased the weight -- and therefore the cost -- of what was supposed to be a relatively inexpensive return system. But I bet they're rethinking that now.
-- Dick
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -----Yes, aerogel is the name.
And Twin Palms, apparently, is the place to hang out, though Sharon and I met on the Internet. We're getting married this fall after being together for a year and a half.
I'm told they might have used the kind of balloons they used on the recent Martian landings, but that would have greatly increased the weight -- and therefore the cost -- of what was supposed to be a relatively inexpensive return system. But I bet they're rethinking that now.
-- Dick
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Michael Turner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 09/09/2004 09:04PM
Subject: Re: the latest splat
> I was there in the hangar at Dugway Proving Grounds as we watched the
> capsule embed itself in the dry lakebed. My girlfriend works on the
Genesis
> project at JPL and I was along as her guest.
Gee, if I weren't married, I'd try to figure out what cafes to hang out
in, around JPL ;-)
> It was a terribly sad moment, as you can imagine, and a long, sad
> afternoon. Through my girlfriend, I had met some of the key engineers and
> scientists involved. I saw that the project manager was on the verge of
> tears as he tried to answer reporters' questions about what had gone
wrong.
> One scientist had been supporting the idea for 14 years, I believe he
said,
> and some of the engineers had lived it with three or more years.
One of the unfortunate things about this incident is that it casts a shadow
over an the idea really sounds very sensible - it's just that the parachute
system wasn't cooperating that day. Reentry survival equipment isn't
really "payload" - it's just the last stage of the overall sample delivery
system. Why design the craft itself for soft landings when it costs so
much to send things into space? If some such soft-landing gear
weighs, say, 100 lbs, the cost of retrieving by helicopter instead
seems like it would be cost-competitive even for the lower range
of launch costs.
> I work in publishing for the IEEE Computer Society. Sometimes, one of the
> magazines I help launch doesn't do as we hoped, so over a period of
several
> months, we get the bad news. That's tough enough, but it must be really
> wrenching to see your dreams come crashing down in a matter of seconds.
I got out of software development because I got so sick of the typical
60-80% project failure rate. But at least I got to see some projects
go to completion. I can't imagine what it must be like to see a project
end up in splinters after a decade or more. It must be a little like
watching
a home you built burn down.
> (Incidentally, I understand that the Stardust material would withstand the
> kind of impact that shattered the silicon and germanium wafers in Genesis
> to smithereens. The Stardust material is an almost lighter-than-air foam.
I
> forget the name, but I got to hold a piece when my 10-year-old daughter
and
> I went to JPL's open house this summer.)
"Aerogel"?
-michael turner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
==
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