Success! We Are Now In Command of the ISEE-3 Spacecraft
Thanks to the many WUWT readers that contributed to make this a success! These guys didn’t disappoint. They pulled it off against the odds. Congratulations to them. There’s a great backstory coming related to the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” that I’ll share as soon as I get clearance. – Anthony
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.
First Contact with ISEE-3 was achieved at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. We would not have been able to achieve this effort without the gracious assistance provided by the entire staff at Arecibo. In addition to the staff at Arecibo, our team included simultaneous listening and analysis support by AMSAT-DL at the Bochum Observatory in Germany, the Space Science Center at Morehead State University in Kentucky, and the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in California.
Of course this effort would not have been possible without the assistance of NASA and the Space Act Agreement crafted by NASA Headquarters, NASA Ames Research center, and the System Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI).
For further information on the ISEE-3 Reboot Project please visit our website at http://spacecollege.org/isee3 A much more detailed description of our First Contact efforts and future plans will be published on our website next week.
I love seeing these updates! Congratulations to Dennis Wingo and the entire team. This was apparently accomplished in the middle of an earthquake at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico.
WOW congrats! Truly amazing !
Terrific news! Congratulations to all concerned from a somewhat jealous radio amateur.
OK This article which was crowd funded (100%?) made me think, why not fully crowd fund the IPCC and drop all taxpayer funding? I mean surely with the “97%”,, “the science is in” and the support of the hypermedia it would be a no brainer to get ALL the funding they need from a concerned public audience, might even get more!!
Congrats where due.
I foresee plenty of jokes about Wottsie and his crowd not having their own satellite…
What a great accomplishment. To have a bunch of guys and gals in the private sector working in cooperation with other private sector folks and government to accomplish this task gives is hope for the future. There are clearly people out there with brains and ability. To Anthony: When you conceived and implemented WUWT, did ever dream it would take you so far?
REPLY: No, never. It was just a local blog for the local newspaper about science and tech. See here: http://wp.me/p7y4l-b – Anthony
Wow!
Way to go! Congratulations.
Congratulations to a “team” worth rooting for.
(Anthony, did you ever get an answer to that asparagus thing? 😎
My friend (from Olema days) Peter Coyote was in that movie.
Pretty impressive the satellite is still transmitting. It has endured 4 solar maximums since its launch in 1978.
Way To Go!
Just came down from off the dome at the telescope. Thanks for all your support! I will put together a more comprehensive article over the weekend.
Just FYI, both transmitters on the spacecraft have been commanded into engineering telemetry mode and we are receiving data.
sadly I had not had a chance to read up on all this so I am really ignorant on the subject.
but it sounds like its something people here really support so I would like to say I am very glad for you guys.
Way to go. Both transmitters still working. Hope the position is not so off you cannot thrust this old bird back into a stable earth orbit. Of the risks you outlined out the outset: funding, check. NASA, check. Bird alive, check. Comm protocols recreated and comm established, check. Now you find out how the systems are, in progress. Already have done more in two months than NASA gets done in years. Great motivated team you have pulled together, Dennis.
Dennis, I have an old 97 Ford F150 you can try to reboot for your next project if you’d like… Hmm, I wonder if I can crowdsource the funding for that… 🙂
I saw some of your early work on this – shades of the ham shack! Pretty neat these old “titanium lizzies” still work.
M Simon: “My friend (from Olema days) Peter Coyote was in that movie”
ya, professor J. Allen Hynek was in it too.
Wow! Way to go! They sure don’t make ’em like they used to!
“They pulled it off against the odds. Congratulations to them. ”
I admit that I had my doubts whether all this could be put in place within the very tight time-frame.
Congratulations indeed. Now for the next step.
No word In the Main Stream Media,I wonder why?
Oops!, wait for It,NASA co-ordinates communication with Lost,Vintage,Damaged,Out of control Satellite.
denniswingo says:
May 29, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Just FYI, both transmitters on the spacecraft have been commanded into engineering telemetry mode and we are receiving data.
Dennis,
The news just keeps getting better – Congratulations!
Mac
Wonderful news! Congratulations to the team.
Is there any chance we HAMS can pick up the telemetry at some point in future? What is the frequency and polarisation? Will a quad of spirals from the attic work?
I am so impressed you achieved engineering telemetry transmit. This is the best thing since the Mars landing.
Now you are in command of the satellite, what are you threatening to do with it? Will you demand that world governments pay you the sum of one million dollars, or are we doomed no matter what we do?
Congratulations to the team. You are the right stuff. : )
All hero material you all are being made through doing such stuff.
John
RoHa says: “Now you are in command of the satellite, what are you threatening to do with it? ”
“Same thing we do every day, Pinkie – try to take over the world.”