At NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, scientist Scott Sandford is part of a team of scientists tasked with opening the Stardust canister. Inside: the aerogel tray with comet dust and interstellar particles. Sandford, an astrophysicist with NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, is the mission's co-investigator. Here are Sanford's latest emailed notes to colleagues:
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 15:01:21 -0800
From: Scott Sandford
Subject: We've removed out first aerogel cells!Hi All, It's been a long day and I haven't the energy to give a full description of today's efforts. I will try to provide a more comprehensive description tomorrow.
In a nutshell – today we cut the aluminum foils holding in several of the aerogel cells and successfully pulled the cells. Whew! As this was our first attempt at this, it was a mildly nerve wracking process. Things went very well and we succeeded in extracting two cells.
The cells survived intact and there were very few, small aerogel fragments generated in the process. The second tile developed a crack during the removal, so we will have to be gentle with it in subsequent steps (as if we aren't being as gentle as possible with all of them!). It's a relief to have verified our removal system works, but we are discussing ways to potentially improve the process.
We will not work on the samples tomorrow. Everybody needs a break. I plan to go to the Houston Gem and Mineral show tomorrow with Mike Z (Zolensky), but I should have plenty of time to give everybody a more detailed update tomorrow.
Cheers!
ScottP.S. – Some of you have been asking for the address of the Stardust Clean room webcam. It's here.
Image: In an experiment using a special air gun, particles shot into aerogel at high velocities leave carrot-shaped trails in the substance.
Previously: NASA Stardust canister opens to reveal "wonderful samples"
