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.
'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,' continued the post, authored by Keith Cowing, the project's webmaster.
Taking control of a vintage spacecraft like this one is actually even more difficult than it sounds. ISEE-3 (since rechristened but widely known now by that name) worked using radio frequencies and hardware that have long since been replaced with more effective technology.
But the craft itself could still perform missions - if anyone could tell it to. Enter a group of like-minded engineers and astronomers, who worked together to track ISEE-3, create a software simulation of the outdated hardware needed to contact it, and finally, reach out and touch the 36-year-old spacecraft. For that last bit, they needed to use the capabilities of the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Thursday's success doesn't mean ISEE-3 is going to go zipping around the solar system - the time in which it is in range of contact and the amount of power it has to affect its own orbit are very limited.
NBC News has contacted Space College for further details, and will add to this post or report again when we hear back.
First published May 29 2014, 5:04 PM
Devin ColdeweyDevin Coldewey is a contributing writer at NBC News; he started his role in April of 2013. Coldewey is responsible for original reporting on a number of tech topics, such as photography, biotechnology, and Internet policy.Coldewey joined NBCNews.com from TechCrunch, where he was an editor covering a similarly wide variety of content and industries. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
Entities 0 Name: NBC News Count: 2 1 Name: Arecibo Radio Observatory Count: 1 2 Name: Devin Coldewey Devin Coldewey Count: 1 3 Name: Keith Cowing Count: 1 4 Name: Puerto Rico Count: 1 5 Name: Earth Count: 1 6 Name: International Sun-Earth Explorer Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1mMotE1 Title: We Are Now In Command of the ISEE-3 Spacecraft Description: 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.
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