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Civilians Try to Lure an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft Back to Earth

Posted by timothy on from the tractor-beams-are-the-missing-link dept.

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."

7 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  2. summary is not accurate by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

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    1. Re:summary is not accurate by Noah+Haders · · Score: 4, Interesting

      what are the legal relationships here, I wonder? does this still belong to NASA? or has it been discarded/written off? what if civilians (or military) in China tried to do the same thing, is it fair game?

    2. Re:summary is not accurate by jeffasselin · · Score: 5, Informative

      They signed an agreement:

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

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  3. paywalled article, not the current state by nietsch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

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  4. here is a much better informative link by nietsch · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://spacecollege.org/isee3/

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  5. Re:they're all terrorists! by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    NASA is giving something away? For free?

    THOSE COMMIES!

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