Hackers get control of 35 year old spacecraft.

[Whitters]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/35-year-old-isee-3-spacecraft-phones-home/

[Rick]

ISEE-3 Reboot Project Update: BULLSEYE! and More

Project Update June 1, 2014

We have returned from our foray (probably not the last) at Arecibo.  It was a wonderful trip, the people down there are marvelous, and Arecibo is the crown jewel of American radio astronomy.  Did you know that the Chinese are building a bigger one, modeled after ours?  The NSF keeps trying to cut their budget but this is truly an amazing asset to the American people and the world and it should be supported!!  I want to thank Mike Nolan, Phil Perillat, Dana Whitlow, Victor Negron, and all the great crew down there.

Technical Progress, Contact Made!

Read more

[Rick]

Calling Back a Zombie Ship From the Graveyard of Space

For 17 years, it has been drifting on a lonely course through space. Launched during the disco era and shuttered by NASA in 1997, the spacecraft is now returning to the civilization that abandoned it.

It seemed destined to pass without fanfare, except for a slight chance of slamming into the moon, and then loop aimlessly through the inner solar system.

But now, a shoestring group of civilians headquartered in a decommissioned McDonald's have reached out and made contact with it — a long-distance handshake that was the first step toward snaring it back into Earth's orbit.

The zombie spaceship is coming home.

More from the NY Times

[Rick]

ISEE-3 Status Report 7 July 2014 (evening)

As many of you know, last week we fired the thrusters on ISEE-3 to do a spin-up burn. Before the burn (actually 11 pulses on the spacecraft's hydrazine thrusters) the spin rate of ISEE-3 was 19.16 rpm. After spin-up burn it was 19.76 rpm. The original mission specifications for ISEE-3 called for a spin rate of 19.75 +/- 0.2 rpm. In other words: bullseye.

More: http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-status-report-7-july-2014-evening.html

Follow progress on http://spacecollege.org/

[Rick]

Curtain Falls on ISEE-3 Reboot Project as Propulsion System Fails

NASA's International Earth/Sun Explorer (ISEE)-3 will not be resuming its original mission after all, now that citizen scientists and engineers striving to rescue it discovered July 9 that the old heliophysics observatory's propulsion system is not working.

"There was no burn and we detected no acceleration and nothing was coming out of the engines," NASAWatch.com editor Keith Cowing, who spearheaded the ISEE-3 Reboot Project along with entrepreneur Dennis Wingo, said in a July 9 phone interview.

More: http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/41197curtain-falls-on-isee-3-reboot-project-as-propulsion-system-fails

But: ISEE-3 Status Report 9 July 2014 (afternoon)

Our troubleshooting today eliminated some suspected causes of propulsion system problems. We do not think any of the valves are malfuctioning. Right now we think there is a chance that the Nitrogen used as a pressurant for the monopropellant Hydrazine propulsion system may have been depleted. That said, we still have a number of troubleshooting options yet to be explored. We have a DSN pass scheduled for Friday that will allow us to recalibrate our location information and trajectory plans for ISEE-3. Even if the L-1 halo orbit is no longer an option, we do have plans to use ISEE-3 for science in other locations within the inner solar system after the lunar flyby on 10 August.

From: http://spacecollege.org/

[Rick]

ISEE-3 Status Report 10 July 2014

We spent all day yesterday with space propulsion experts. We have identified a series of options including hydrazine tank heating and a long series of pulse attempts to (possibly) clear the lines. We have most certainly not given up on this spacecraft yet. It is doing science and will continue to do so for years to come.

More: http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-status-report-10-july-2014.html

[Rick]

ISEE-3 spacecraft presentation in Guildford Saturday

Achim Vollhardt DH2VA and Mario Lorenz DL5MLO from AMSAT-DL Bochum will be giving a presentation on ISEE-3 (ICE) to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium at
the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ.
The event is open to all

The presentation takes place from 1:50-2:40pm (1250-1340 GMT) on Saturday, July 26 and it is hoped to have a live demonstration of telemetry reception from the spacecraft during the presentation.

The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3) is a NASA spacecraft that was launched in 1978 to study Earth's magnetosphere. It was repurposed and renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) in 1983 to study two comets and has been in a heliocentric orbit since then, traveling just slightly faster than Earth. It's finally catching up with Earth from behind with the closest approach expected in August, 2014.

Since NASA no longer has the capability to receive and command the spacecraft a group of amateurs, with NASA's permission, decided to do it for themselves.

More: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/july/isee_3_spacecraft_presentation_in_guildford_saturday.htm