Let the sunshine in

Some good news about the Genesis probe.

Wreckage from the Genesis space capsule yielded good news on Friday when NASA scientists announced the solar payload may still fulfill its scientific promise. ...

The damaged spacecraft was lifted out of its crater by helicopter and moved to a sterile "clean room" on the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah following the crash. Inspectors with mirrors and flashlights were thrilled to find some of the hexagonal-wafers and gold foil intact. Although many of the tiles shattered - some were reduced to dust - scientists found enough shards that were large enough to study.

Genesis had painstakingly deployed the collector tiles and foil over the last two years to capture atoms from the solar wind. An analysis of the solar wind is expected to provide clues about the composition of the sun and origins of our solar system.

It's amazing to think how much we know; even more amazing to think how much we don't. But what we can do now with projects like Genesis (and those before and since) is begin to, if you will, explore our ignorance because we now have ways to find answers to questions that earlier we really did not even have the means to ask.