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Genesis
News Release: Los
Alamos instruments to capture the sun
The following photographs are provided by Los Alamos
National Laboratory
Photo Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Click on the icon to view a high-resolution image for
downloading.
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Spacecraft instrument builders Dan Everett, left,
and Juan Baldonado, right, of Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1),
inspect portions of the Genesis solar wind concentrator as it is
being assembled in the cleanroom at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The ion target at the center of the instrument is composed of high
purity silicon carbide (light) and industrial diamond (dark) wedges
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Dan Everett,
left, of Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1), the lead concentrator
technician and Rick Paynter, right, of Quality Assurance at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, perform a final check on one of the solar wind
concentrator grids during the final assembly of the instrument. They
are using a flashlight to inspect a portion of the grid near the outer
edge of the assembly. At one-fourth the diameter of a human hair the
individual grid wires are difficult to see. Everett and Paynter are
working in a class-100 cleanroom built for instrument assembly. Class-100
means a maximum of 100 dust particles per cubic meter of air are allowed. |
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Los Alamos lead
concentrator technician, Dan Everett, left, inspects high voltage
screens stretched across the face of the concentrator using a flashlight
and jeweler's glasses. Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Quality Assurance
Inspector Rick Paynter, right, looks on. |
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The solar wind concentrator
undergoing vacuum testing at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A laser
sensor, located on the arm in front of the vacuum window, is being
used to check the flatness of the thin high-voltage screens (invisible
in this picture) that stretch across the front of the instrument. |
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An artist’s
rendering of the Genesis spacecraft and its payload. The concentrator
(solar wind concentrator), ion monitor and electron monitor were designed
and built by a team of scientists and engineers in Space and Atmospheric
Sciences (NIS-1) and Space Instrumentation and System Engineering
(NIS-4) groups at Los Alamos. The solar wind concentrator is designed
to collect a high concentration of oxygen and return the sample back
to Earth for analysis. The ion and electron monitors instantaneously
determine which type of solar wind is passing the spacecraft at any
time and translate that knowledge into actions for the solar wind
concentrator and solar wind collector arrays. |
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Genesis’
shoebox-sized electron monitor, left, and ion monitor, right, designed
and built at Los Alamos instantaneously determine which type of solar
wind is passing the spacecraft at any time and translate that knowledge
into actions for the solar wind concentrator and solar wind collector
arrays. The monitors will distinguish between three types of solar
wind by recognizing their characteristic temperature, velocity, direction
and composition. |
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Genesis
