| Abstract |
Genesis is a NASA mission (Discovery Program) into a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 (outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, L1 is located 1.5 million km in the direction toward the sun). The objective is to monitor the solar wind and to collect particles of the solar wind by ion implantation into the collector materials for a duration of two years, and to return these samples for isotopic and chemical analysis in terrestrial laboratories. The outer portion of the sun is believed to reflect the bulk composition of the original solar nebula. One way to measure the composition of the outer portion of the sun is to analyze the solar wind.
The science objectives are:
- To obtain precise measures of solar isotopic abundances. Measurement of isotopic compositions of oxygen, nitrogen, and noble gases. These data enable scientists to better understand the isotopic variations in meteorites, comets, lunar samples, and planetary atmospheres.
- To obtain greatlyimproved measures of solar elemental abundances
- To provide a reservoir of solar matter for 21st century science research, eliminating the need for future solar wind sample return missions.
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