Genesis Mission Status Update January 20, 2003

The Genesis spacecraft continues its mission collecting solar wind material expelled from the Sun. Telemetry from the Genesis spacecraft indicates that it is spinning at a rate of 1.594 rotations per minute and in overall good health.

Over this past week, the spacecraft's 'low solar speed' collector array has been logging the majority of collection time. There are three collector arrays aboard Genesis that are exposed to or hidden from the solar wind, one for each of the three solar wind regimes. Which collector array is exposed is determined by the data received by sensitive ion and electron monitors located on the spacecraft's equipment deck. These monitors scrutinize the solar wind passing by the spacecraft and relay this information to the onboard computer, which in turn commands the collector arrays to deploy and retract as needed.

Genesis Vital Statistics:

• 530 days since launch.
• 439 days to planned completion of solar particle collection.
• 597 days to Genesis return to Earth.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.