Retro space #edge
Retro space #edge
Originally shared by Volker Harbecke
How To Revive An Old Space Explorer
and overcome extraterrestrial obstacles
One afternoon this week on my way home I listened to a radio show on science. And one of the contributions ranked around reception reports of the radio telescope at Bochum Observatory (http://goo.gl/MMmVDF) and of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Allen array (http://goo.gl/zncZiQ), both from March 2014. Some more reports followed.
The antennas had detected signals of the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3), which had been launched in 1978 for a mission of three years.
After the first three years, the spacecraft had been placed at the Earth/Sun Lagrange point (http://goo.gl/eifmne) L1. The task was to observe solar phenomena for some time.
Afterwards ISEE-3 was brought into a new project and renamed to ICE. The mission now was to explore two comets, Gaicobini-Zinner and Halley. To approach them, it needed several orbital "dances" (see picture below). The flyby at Gaicobini-Zinner took place in 1985 in a distance of only 8,000 kilometers while Halley could be "watched" from 21 million kilometers.
Complementary studies followed and the spacecraft was contacted 19 years ago for the last time. It was set to spiral around the sun with a near-earth encounter in August 2014.
How a group of enthusiasts tries to reactivate the spacecraft and what they do to get along with an "impossible schedule, and without a budget" you may read in the article about their "ISEE-3 Reboot Project".
#citizenscience #vhreinbek
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/25/the-international-sun-earth-explorer-isee-3-reboot-project-bringing-an-old-bird-back-to-the-earth-and-back-to-life/
Originally shared by Volker Harbecke
How To Revive An Old Space Explorer
and overcome extraterrestrial obstacles
One afternoon this week on my way home I listened to a radio show on science. And one of the contributions ranked around reception reports of the radio telescope at Bochum Observatory (http://goo.gl/MMmVDF) and of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Allen array (http://goo.gl/zncZiQ), both from March 2014. Some more reports followed.
The antennas had detected signals of the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3), which had been launched in 1978 for a mission of three years.
After the first three years, the spacecraft had been placed at the Earth/Sun Lagrange point (http://goo.gl/eifmne) L1. The task was to observe solar phenomena for some time.
Afterwards ISEE-3 was brought into a new project and renamed to ICE. The mission now was to explore two comets, Gaicobini-Zinner and Halley. To approach them, it needed several orbital "dances" (see picture below). The flyby at Gaicobini-Zinner took place in 1985 in a distance of only 8,000 kilometers while Halley could be "watched" from 21 million kilometers.
Complementary studies followed and the spacecraft was contacted 19 years ago for the last time. It was set to spiral around the sun with a near-earth encounter in August 2014.
How a group of enthusiasts tries to reactivate the spacecraft and what they do to get along with an "impossible schedule, and without a budget" you may read in the article about their "ISEE-3 Reboot Project".
#citizenscience #vhreinbek
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/04/25/the-international-sun-earth-explorer-isee-3-reboot-project-bringing-an-old-bird-back-to-the-earth-and-back-to-life/
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