Use NASA’s Genesis mission page to monitor the progress of the first sample return mission since Apollo 17. Coverage will be broadcast live and on the Internet (links available at the NASA site).
Although snagging the Genesis return capsule in mid-air (using helicopters piloted by stunt flyers) should be spectacular, what interests interstellar theorists is what we may learn about the solar wind. This stream of charged particles and magnetic fields moving up to 500 kilometers per second may eventually be used to push a magnetic sail like M2P2 (Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion), which the University of Washington’s Robert Winglee designed in a study for NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts. A NASA page on the Winglee design can be found here. From the article:
There is enough power in the solar wind to accelerate a 136 kg (300 lb) spacecraft to speeds of up to 288,000 km/h (180,000 mph) or 6.9 million km (4.3 million mi) a day. By contrast, the space shuttle travels at about 7.7 km/s (17,300 mph) or 688,000 km (430,000 mi) a day.
Genesis, with its precious canister of particles collected over a 27-month period by the spacecraft’s five collector panels, will tell us much about the composition of the Sun, and will refine our understanding of the makeup of the solar wind. Coverage starts at 11 A.M. EDT.
