Earthsky Interviews
Private: Hook, line and sinker
09-07-2004 - Earth
_DB:_ NASA’s Genesis spacecraft has been in space for three years. It was collecting charged particles streaming outward from the sun. Tomorrow – as the Genesis space capsule descends above a desert over the state of Utah – a rectangular parachute called a parafoil will open up and slow the capsule down. It should be moving 16 kilometers or 10 miles an hour.
_JB:_ Roy Haggard is a project engineer and a director of flight operations for the mission. He’ll be in one of two helicopters attempting to catch the space capsule – much as a fisherman snags a fish.
_Roy Haggard:_ … the hook is in a spring-loaded jaw at the end of the catchpole. And as soon as it sees a force on it that’s higher than about 260 pounds, it and the load line releases from the end of the pole and then the load is transferred directly to a wench assembly that is installed in the helicopter and it pays out line just as a fishing reel might.
_DB:_ If all goes well, the capsule will be rushed to a clean room to prevent contamination of the solar particles – the first space samples brought back to Earth in over 30 years.
_JB:_ Our thanks to the “National Science Foundation”:http://www.nsf.gov/ – where discoveries begin. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
Author’s Notes:
Haggard explained why a parafoil was chosen instead of a traditional parachute that’s shaped like an upside down bowl.
Roy Haggard: “And the one contribution that Vertigo has made to the mid-air retrieval technology is using the parafoil as the main parachute for this activity. And that actually makes the job of the pilot much easier because it’s a lot easier to fly on approach on a parafoil than it is on a round parachute. It’s easier to tell what it is – it doesn’t have a bigger low-pressure area over it that would cause a helicopter to fall into it. The old style midair retrievals that took place with helicopters – you have a heavy payload and the parachute is descending – there is a big low pressure area over the top of the parachute and when the helicopter transitions into that area, the helicopter drops. It’s also round. So trying to figure out where you are relative to the parachute is much more difficult than the parafoil. So for all those reasons, we transitioned midair recovery to using a parafoil and made the task much easier to accomplish.”
The helicopters have one shot at catching the space capsule – if they miss, it will hit the hard, Utah desert floor and damage the delicate samples inside. But that doesn’t faze Roy Haggard.
Roy Haggard: “You know, we have an open parafoil, somewhere where we can get to it, we have every confidence that we’ll be able to mid air retrieve it and bring it back to its receiving cradle outside the clean room at Michael Army Air Field and provide a virtual no impact set down.”
More Resources:
To see a video of a test run of a mid-air space capsule capture, come to: “Stunt pilot practices for catching space probe”:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874702/ (MSNBC, April 30 2004)
“Hollywood Helps NASA with Genesis Probe”:http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1863266 (NPR’s Day To Day, April 30, 2004)
“Genesis Mission”:http://www.genesismission.org/ (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
The following person was interviewed for today’s show. Our thanks to:
Roy Haggard
CEO – Vertigo Inc.
Project Engineer and a Director of Flight Operations – Genesis Mission
Lake Elsinore, CA