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."

Comments

Duh

[Anonymous Coward]

This is old news to Slashdot readers. See http://tech.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ISEE+3

summary is not accurate

[ganjadude]

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

Re:summary is not accurate

[jeffasselin]

They signed an agreement:

http://spacecollege.org/isee3/...

Re:summary is not accurate

[Electricity Likes Me]

NASA has given the approval to communicate and control it, so there's a partnership there (and probably a lot of goodwill to, since NASA isn't doing this because they couldn't find the funding for the project).

It would be a diplomatic incident if China did it without seeking approval, but again, it's unlikely anyone would care if it wasn't active disruption.

here is a much better informative link

[nietsch]

http://spacecollege.org/isee3/