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ISEE-3

Communication Has Been Restored With the ISEE-3 Spacecraft

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 29, 2014
Filed under

We Are Now In Command of the ISEE-3 Spacecraft
“The ISEE-3 Reboot Project is pleased to announce that our team has established two-way communication with the ISEE-3 spacecraft and has begun commanding it to perform specific functions. Over the coming days and weeks our team will make an assessment of the spacecraft’s overall health and refine the techniques required to fire its engines and bring it back to an orbit near Earth.”
ISEE-3 Spacecraft Status
“We have successfully commanded both of ISEE-3’s data multiplexers into engineering telemetry mode. The current bitrate is 512 bits/sec.  We have been able to verify modulated data through ground stations in Germany, Morehead State in Kentucky, and the SETI Allen Array in California.”
Keith’s note: 34 years before the ISEE-3 Reboot Project there was another attempt to raise private funds to operate a retired NASA spacecraft – Viking 1. It was called “The Viking Fund.” Never heard of it? Here’s a story from 1980 that explains what they did. Sound familiar? I was involved. So this whole idea is not exactly a new one to me. The person behind all of this was Stan Kent.
After Decades Of Silent Wandering, NASA Probe Phones Home, NPR
“The initial contact was a tone followed by specific commands,” project organizer Keith Cowing told NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce by email. “We learned a lot simply by being able to talk to it and get it to do things. “May not sound like much but that was a huge unknown,” he adds.”

The 1970s Spacecraft is Ours Again!, io0
“Communication requires a hardware amplifier installed in the dish at Arecibo. After a lot of fiddling around and even an earthquake, everything was ready.The team has been waiting since Friday last week for permission from NASA to go ahead with first contact. Every day of delay was a mounting risk, as orbital dynamics has no patience for paperwork.”
At Last! Amateur Astronomers Reboot 36-Year-Old ISEE-3 Spacecraft, NBC
“An ambitious project to resuscitate an abandoned spacecraft finally met with success Thursday as amateur astro-engineers took control of the International Sun-Earth Explorer — originally launched in 1978. “We are now in command of the ISEE-3 spacecraft,” read the title of Thursday’s online post at Space College, the name of the crowdfunded team attempting to make contact.”
NASA’s Lost Satellite Just Made Its First Contact With Earth in 17 Years, Gizmodo
“It’s official: ISEE-3, the 36-year-old satellite that NASA left for dead over a decade ago, is back in touch with humankind. This afternoon, a group of citizen scientists who raised almost $160,000 to fund the process of taking control of ISEE-3 announced that two-way contact has been established with the little satellite that could. So what’s next?”
Space Buffs Make Contact With Discarded NASA Probe, Science
Today the group made first contact with the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) when the spacecraft acknowledged receiving a signal from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, says Keith Cowing, co-director of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, a group of about 20 volunteer space buffs. “We knew we could do this–it’s a vindication,” he says. “It’s sort of like reaching back in time to grab something that otherwise would have been lost.”
Space Hackers Take Control of ISEE-3 Spacecraft, IEEE Spectrum
“Everything was in place by last Friday, the team reported, but they had to await clearance from NASA. That put some pressure on the team’s already tight schedule: they expect they have until mid-June to command the spacecraft to fire its thrusters for the first time.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

19 responses to “Communication Has Been Restored With the ISEE-3 Spacecraft”

  1. Nathan Rogers says:
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    Seriously well done!

  2. Prickly_Pear says:
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    Awesome. Congratulations.

  3. cynical_space says:
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    Congratulations! Its great the spacecraft is in good enough shape to command!

  4. OpenTrackRacer says:
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    Awesome news! Great work!

  5. James Ray Bartlett says:
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    Awesome news! Congratulations!

  6. Anonymous says:
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    WAY TO GO!!!

  7. Donald Barker says:
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    Keith and team. Awesome! Do you have a dedicated web site for this endeavor? If so, some things that would be cool to see include: current and projected satellite location, operational status and plans, vehicle capabilities, goals, data results, ect.

    Keep up the good work and good luck.

    • patb2009 says:
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      given the short time line and the relative resource constraints,
      i’m not expecting them to do much other then focus on rebooting the bird, locking down the Location, TLE, and then running the engineering protocols to reboot the bird.

  8. mfwright says:
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    I’ve received updates in my email. thanks for keeping donors informed.

  9. Tim Blaxland says:
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    Congrats!

  10. A_J_Cook says:
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    Keith,
    Long ago, I was in Don Yeomans’ office at JPL to interview him about the attempt to find comet Halley (just before it was found at Palomar in October, 1982). Don had to take a phone call while I was there-Robert Farqhar called to tell him the good news that he had just received government authorization to send ISEE-3 from its earth-halo orbit to allow it to study comet Giacobini Zinner and Halley, thus providing the U.S. with a comet probe. Dr. Yeomans explained the plan to me, which had not been publicly announced up to that time. In November or December 1985, I had the honor of showing Dr. Fred Scarf, the P.I. on ISEE’s plasma wave experiment, his first view of comet Halley-through Griffith Observatory’s Zeiss 12-inch refractor.
    Your great achievement has revived many wonderful memories.Thank you!

    • Denniswingo says:
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      Great story!!

      • A_J_Cook says:
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        I checked the telescope log book:
        “Monday, November 18,1985 (Comet Halley)
        Dr. Fred Scarf looks at opening. Easy to see.”

        376 people followed him to the eyepiece that night.

  11. Michael Spencer says:
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    God damn it but that headline made me smile!

  12. objose says:
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    I cannot find this out by reading here or anywhere else. I know, from reading that the batteries are dead. Got that. You speak of firing the engines. What is the propulsion unit for this thing? How much “gas” does it have left? If it does have gas left, why did they build it with so much left over capacity. If someone sends me “specs on ISEE-3” I could read it myself. CONGRATULATIONS team. More Pizza and Cashews for you and your team Keith!

    • cynical_space says:
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      ” If it does have gas left, why did they build it with so much left over capacity.”

      Could be any number of reasons. The simplest is that the amount of propellant needed for the mission is calculated with margin, so they will likely have more than is strictly needed for the mission. The extra can be put use after the primary mission is complete. Here is a another scenario:

      During vehicle development, design trades led to a certain size propellant tank. Often, this capacity exceeds the amount of prop needed for the mission. If the prop tanks can be filled to capacity without the added mass affecting the launch vehicle’s ability to get it to the intended orbit, that option is often taken.

      So, after the primary mission is done, there is plenty left over for extended missions.

      The real danger with old spacecraft is loss of power. If there is no power, that means no heaters, and that means components get cold. Very cold. Prop can freeze in the lines, Critical electronics can be killed by the temperature extremes.

      Thankfully, the command and telemetry systems on ISEE appear to have survived. I hope the other systems did as well. Ironically enough, it is sometimes older spacecraft that are better equipped to handle situations like this. Modern S/C use electronic parts that are much more sensitive to the environment. The trade-off of course is that modern S/C have much more capacity to get more done and are, in general, cheaper to build for a given capability.