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Civilians Try to Lure an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft Back to Earth
A New York Times piece (as carried by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) outlines a fascinating project operating in unlikely circumstances for a quixotic goal. They want to control, and return to earth, the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, launched in 1978 but which "appears to be in good working order." Engineer Dennis Wingo, along with like minded folks (of whom he says "We call ourselves techno-archaeologists") has established a business called Skycorp that "has its offices in the McDonald's that used to serve the Navy's Moffett air station, 15 minutes northwest of San Jose, Calif. After the base closed, NASA converted it to a research campus for small technology companies, academia and nonprofits. ... The race to revive the craft, ISEE-3, began in earnest in April. At the end of May, using the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the team succeeded in talking to the spacecraft, a moment Mr. Wingo described as "way cool." This made Skycorp the first private organization to command a spacecraft outside Earth orbit, he said.
The most disheartening part: "No one has the full operating manual anymore, and the fragments are sometimes contradictory." The most exciting? "Despite the obstacles, progress has been steady, and Mr. Wingo said the team should be ready to fire the engines within weeks."
This is old news to Slashdot readers. See http://tech.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ISEE+3
The team is not trying to bring the craft back to earth as in re entry as would be assumed by the summary, but they are trying to re pourpos the craft. The craft in question has already been re purposed at least one time in the past. This is the only time it will be close enough to take it back and put it in an orbit that will make it useful again. Im pretty sure we had an article about that here on /. a few months ago
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
How dare they try to use space junk?!
Someone read to much xkcd, I see.
... it could make a nice chunk of bait for Reavers... jus' sayin'
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
1997 was the age of glam rock and heavy metal, also rap was begining to make an impact, also plenty of electronic pop.
Contact has already been made, this has been reported before and the article is 'continued' on a paywalled site.
Is this again the fault of that badly functioning firehose thingy, or some ill informed editor?
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Either way, I reckon they should be quick about it before the Alliance shows up.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
http://spacecollege.org/isee3/
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
They're going to "lure" it back?
Can anyone explain how they plan to lure a spacecraft, or is this some sort of confusion caused by using google translate?
What did the Sun Explorer say when it was revived?
"O, Shiny!" : )
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Contacting the spacecraft and getting it to respond is a pretty cool hack. I doubt they'll be able to make it do anything useful, but hey - it makes a good toy to play with.
- three rocket burns in 1986 set it on course to return 28 years later, on Aug. 10, 2014. Dr. Farquhar suggested that a space shuttle could bring it to the ground. NASA even signed an agreement to donate it to the National Air and Space Museum. The rest of NASA, however, was not thinking that far ahead. Now 81, Dr. Farquhar is collaborating with the rescue effort, and he is still thinking ahead. He wants to send ISEE3 out to visit yet another comet. Mr. Wingo protests that it would cost too much money. “We’ll go to the comet,” Dr. Farquhar said. “Trust me.”
From TFA:
the Commodores topped the music charts with "Three Times a Lady"
If we can get Wingo an up to date location to target Justin Bieber, we might see yet another contribution to the arts.
Have gnu, will travel.
... it didn't meet and fuse with an alien probe of immense power designed to bring back sterilized soil samples, we're ok.
.. what's not to Like? Who was the Doctor in 1978 and 1986?
What does that does that have to do with it? It was civilians who launched it and ran it as well.
Try peanut butter, I'm not sure if it works on dinosaurs, but it works great for mice.
> in the McDonald's that used to serve the Navy's Moffett air station
The McDonald's attracted the military base, not the other way around.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
had a ton of papers written with the various commands in them.
I wonder why they can't put the manual together from those?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You would want to attract Reavers because...?
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Because that's how we're going to deal with the Ukrainian crisis.
"No one has the full operating manual anymore, and the fragments are sometimes contradictory."
Haven't these guys ever RTFM'd before?
If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.