These 2 guys are trying to salvage a 35-year-old spacecraft … and you can help, Blastr
“The International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 probe was originally launched in 1978, and in the decades since it has studied solar winds and magnetic fields and even flown through the tail of Halley’s comet in 1986. NASA used the craft for all kinds of studies over the years, until it was decommissioned in 1999.”
Can crowdfunding resurrect this 35-year-old space probe?, DVICE
“So what happens once communication is re-established with ISEE-3? With 12 of its 13 scientific instruments still working (at least as of 1999), the research team hopes to turn the spacecraft and its instruments over to the public by creating an app that allows anyone access to its data.”
Keith’s note: The project just passed the $50,000 mark. More than 840 people have donated – the vast majority making donations in the $10 – $50 range. For more information, have a look at the ISEE-3 Reboot Project crowdfunding page.
wow, last time i looked a few days ago, it was only $15,000
impressive!! push hard guys, get more funding 🙂
For those of you that have never run into Gunter’s Space Page, here is the ISEE-3 (ICE) page: http://space.skyrocket.de/d…
Gunter’s is in English. Its like Jane’s “All the World’s Aircraft” but for Space Travel. A great web resource.
ISEE-3 is already a historic vehicle. It was the first (pretty sure) cluster of vehicles to study the Sun-Earth relationship. At times, the orbits of ISEE-1, 2 and 3 would align on the same Earth magnetic field lines which permitted the study of dynamic events funneling down those lines. Several other cluster-type missions followed from its example.
Then Robert Farquhar contrived a convoluted trajectory with gravity assists, convinced NASA and thus, ISEE-3 left behind 1 and 2, becoming the ICE mission which flew by comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985 and Comet Halley in 1986. The 80’s were lean times for NASA and I recall the disappointment when Washington refused to fund an American led Halley mission. ICE became the “poor man’s” comet mission. The ESA’s Giotto plus Japanese and Soviet probes really took the spot light from NASA when Halley made its once every 75 year visit to the inner solar system.
Fairchild Space and Electronics Division was the prime contractor for ISEE-1 and 3, ISEE-2 being built by ESA. Fairchild Industries is what funded the “Traitorous Eight” that bolted from Dr. Shockley, creating Fairchild Semiconductor considered the beginning of Silicon Valley and the computer electronics that drives the World today. So like the working Voyager craft, ISEE-3 is a testimony to the early semi-conductor development driven by NASA Apollo program and onward. While the Soviet Union was still flying vacuum tubes, ISEE-3 was solid state. And it is hardly a coincidence that the business opportunities in Silicon Valley attracted Dennis Wingo and others from back East. So while ISEE-3 electronics are frozen in time, today’s computers and the Internet are providing the chance to recover this venerable spacecraft from a final abandonment. ISEE-3, with 12 of 13 instruments still active, can rejoin a small group of active space probes monitoring the Sun-Earth relationship, a very complex relationship that could stand to receive another point of observation. With no disparagement warranted towards NASA, this independent effort to recover a very old yet functional space probe will just pile another historic feat upon the ISEE-3 record. Let’s do it!