Genesis does not break wind

Images: Genesis spacecraft; How it was supposed to land; How it did land, here and here; Comet Wild2
Info: Build a paper Genesis

Those NASA people are real miracle workers. First, they design a craft to catch Solar Wind--tiny particles discharged by the sun, streaming through and out of our solar system. What exactly they are made of, what their properties are, is still a question.
The Genesis Spacecraft was supposed to provide answers, but after a serious landing failure, it was unknown if the materials returned could be saved, or if they had been contaminated upon impact.
Well, fear not! It appears the samples can be retrieved and will be analyzed; mission success! (Except for the crash landing.)

The big question yet to be answered though is whether the same system failure that struck Genesis will plague Stardust, currently returning from a sampling mission of comet Wild2.

According to Team Stardust at NASA:

The collected particles, stowed in a sample return capsule onboard Stardust, will be returned to Earth for in-depth analysis. That dramatic event will occur on January 15, 2006, when the capsule makes a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. The microscopic particle samples of comet and interstellar dust collected by Stardust will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for analysis.

The key words here are SOFT LANDING -- not embedded six feet in the desert floor. Let's hope for NASA, the second time's the charm.