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ISEE-3

Away Team Detects ISEE-3 at Arecibo

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 19, 2014
Filed under ,

ISEE-3 Reboot Project Hardware Detects ISEE-3 at Arecibo
“The following are screenshots of data from the live receive session we did with our Ettus Research Software Defined Radio unit attached to the Arecibo antenna today (19 May). “Waterfalls” were generated by post-processing the recorded data. There are four recordings of various lengths as we were testing the setup, and this is the very, very initial result.”
ISEE-3 Away Team Is at Arecibo
Keith’s note: The ISEE-3 Away Team is onsite at Arecibo: Dennis Wingo, Balint Seeber, Austin Epps. A month ago when we started (14 April) we had $0.00. Today the team is installing hardware on the antenna.
Now that we’ve passed our initial goal of $125,000, we have asked for an extension to our crowd funding effort – a “stretch goal” of $150,000. As we developed the software, hardware, and procedures needed to contact and command the ISEE-3 spacecraft, it became clear to us that getting additional information on the precise location of the spacecraft was of great value. The best way to do that is to use NASA’s DSN (Deep Space Network). Since NASA is not funding our project, we’d need to pay them for this activity. Based on the time we’d need to use the DSN, $25,000 is a very good estimate. We’re already close to $132,000 $135,000 $136,000 $143,000. So, if you have not yet donated, here’s your chance.
First Contact will occur very soon (we hope) within the next week. Please consider helping this project at http://rkthb.co/42228.

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

23 responses to “Away Team Detects ISEE-3 at Arecibo”

  1. fcrary says:
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    Just to keep things transparent, where did $25,000 come from? NASA has, for example, a formula for proposed Discovery missions to use for estimating DSN costs to NASA. (I’m not, by the way, implying there is anything wrong with the $25k number, I’m just a pest about thinking everything should be above the table.)

    • kcowing says:
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      Um, why would we just make something up – now? Doesn’t make any sense that we’d not be transparent. The number we work with is $10,000 an hour. Source: NASA.

      • fcrary says:
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        That’s a fair answer, and I didn’t mean to imply you were making anything up. I like to ask everyone questions like that, just so I can’t be accused of only asking when I’m suspicious. But your estimate does add up to just 2.5 hours. That won’t give you more that good values for the line-of-sight speed and range. Are you people sure that’s enough?

        • kcowing says:
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          If we felt we needed more then we’d ask for more. We already have some contingency funds to cover part of the cost. We have been utterly open on everything. If you are “suspicious” well, there is not much I can do about that.

          • objose says:
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            Keith, it is my understanding that you have spent some of the donations on Pizza for the staff. NSA video monitoring of the luncheons reveals that not only did you eat more than your share of the Pizza, you also put two left over pieces in your pants and took them home with you. GSA will be auditing that portion of your behavior. Expect an big posting in NASAWATCH titled: “PIZZA OVERRUNS LINING POCKETS OF RESEARCHERS. Anyway, with that said, thank you for all of your work on this. Good luck with the next phase.

          • kcowing says:
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            Make that CASHEWS and pizza.

      • John Thomas says:
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        He didn’t say you made anything up. He was just curious where it came from. I assume then you were planning on 2.5 hrs of DSN time.

  2. Denniswingo says:
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    Amen, and yea verily…

  3. dbooker says:
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    You mean that one of the many missions already paid for by the US taxpayers can’t donate this time? Or the DSN can’t chalk this up to maintenance or calibration? NASA wasted more money than this figuring out what to charge.

    • cb450sc says:
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      Actually, no, at the mission level they can’t “donate” time – it’s explicitly illegal to spend funds in a way that they weren’t originally allocated for. Not to say that doesn’t effectively happen a lot, but cost-sharing is a dodgy practice that you have to be pretty careful about. Also, that’s down at the project level – HQ could choose to make this a priority and retask funds at their level.

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      Maybe in how things get to orbit, but for science missions like this and many others I don’t see changes coming?

  4. DTARS says:
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    A while back, before I know anything about this effort to save this Satellite l asked the question, how much does it really cost to operate a satellite. I suggested that perhaps colleges could help. I was pretty much attacked by some, asking me where is the money going to come from, suggesting that it is to expensive and impossible. Anyway I’m sure Keith and Dennis were cooking this up long before I asked. But this sure is a cool answer! I put this in the same class as Musks effort to reduce the cost to Leo.

    • Jeff Smith says:
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      We are going to see a drastic change in how our industry does business over the next 10-20 years.

    • Anonymous says:
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      This one answer. It’s not an answer with amounts that can be universally applied. That should be obvious.

      • DTARS says:
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        I agree with you Mr. Squared

        What other junk/treasure is out there Mr. Squared? How can we get some kind fuel depot up there to refill and reuse other satellites? Soon we will have much cheaper launch to Leo. All kinds of things will be possible. NASA is once again looking at mining the moon. Maybe it will be a commercial moon mining project that is the foundation of the future.

        I don’t know Mr. Squared that’s why I ask

        This won’t be the last time someone tries to mine the treasure that’s up there.

        Dumpster diver. 🙂

  5. cb450sc says:
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    I assume someone already asked about getting the time – my experience with the DSN is that it’s incredibly oversubscribed. There’s a lot of negotiation to get into their schedule. I guess it depends on which antenna you need. P.S. folks- the DSN is another piece of NASA infrastructure in dire need of an injection of funds. Everyone assumes it’s just there to use, but the truth is there are so many birds in the air now that telecom is a huge issue for everyone. An optical link to Mars and L2 would be a godsend. There was talk of using one of the NRO telescopes for such an experiment.

    • Denniswingo says:
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      We know all of these things. We don’t say everything that is going on in public at NASAWatch.

      We are also the biggest fans out there of the DSN and take every opportunity to praise them for the amazing job they do, and support any move by the agency to support their funding.

  6. kcowing says:
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    Thanks!

  7. Steve Pemberton says:
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    “if you have not yet donated, here’s your chance”

    I had not but I have now.

    Making contact with a long ago retired interplanetary spacecraft: $125,000

    Knowing exactly where that spacecraft is: $25,000

    Putting that spacecraft back to work producing useful new data, while at the same time demonstrating what can be done when you are willing to try hard enough: priceless

  8. Michael Spencer says:
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    @dbooker: Who? Spitzer got some awful news this week. Money is hard to find (well, unless you need to build a tank or something…)

    (The text-focus shift can land you in some odd spots if you have the screen zoomed; this should be below, sorry).

  9. John Thomas says:
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    Could a timeline of the effort be posted?