US: American scientists yesterday plucked dirt and mud from the mangled capsule which crashed in the Utah desert, hoping to find enough solar dust to yield clues about the dawn of the planetary system.
NASA is setting up an investigation to try to determine what what went wrong in the final stages of the $264 million mission. The capsule was carrying the first extraterrestrial matter to be returned to earth by a spacecraft since lunar missions in the early 1970s.
The capsule was supposed to have deployed a chute to stabilize and slow its re-entry. It was then supposed to be caught in mid-air by a Hollywood helicopter stunt pilot.
But the parachute failed to deploy and it smashed into the ground at 200 m.p.h.
The capsule was recovered and flown to a "clean room" at the US Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah late on Wednesday.
Mission scientists began a pain-staking examination of what Genesis program scientist, David Lindstrom, called "a mangled mess of a spacecraft" which had spent three years collecting microscopic solar ions on collector plates described as a "fossil record" of the sun.
"We think we can remove most of the impurities," Mr Lindstrom told a media briefing. "We are very hopeful of getting good science out of it."
Scientists will first have to clear dirt off the capsule before deciding how to pry open the canister without further contaminating the contents.
"There has been shattering of some of the collector plates, some of them to dust, but there are also sizable pieces left," he said.
Scientists hoped the solar wind particles would help them learn how the sun and its family of planets originated an estimated 4.5 billion years ago and how the solar system evolved.
The 450-pound capsule, which is 5 feet in diameter, was badly damaged on one side when it landed in the desert, opening a 6-inch gap on its surface.
"There is a lot we don't yet know about the contents of the canister. There is no particular hurry. It is not panic mode by any means," Mr Lindstrom said.
The scientist dismissed suggestions that the crash had raised questions about NASA's program of relatively cheap space explorations.
"This was a very carefully planned, beautifully executed mission up until the very end so there is no need for soul searching," he said.