Can citizen scientists revive a 36-year-old spacecraft drifting through deep space?
In short: Launched in 1978, the ISEE-3 probe is making its closest approach to Earth in over three decades. While NASA has retired the mission, a team of dedicated citizen scientists is racing to rebuild obsolete technology to capture the probe and bring it back into orbit.
The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) began its journey in 1978, originally designed to study the solar wind and plasma environments surrounding the Earth-Moon system. After completing its primary mission in 1981, the spacecraft utilized orbital mechanics and a lunar gravity assist to head into deep space, where it spent decades observing two comets and orbiting the sun.
This proximity offers a rare window for communication, but there is a significant technical hurdle: the specific technology required to communicate with this 1970s-era hardware has long since been retired. To bridge this gap, Skycorp, Inc., based in Los Gatos, California, has launched the ISEE-3 Reboot Project.
NASA has entered into a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with Skycorp, marking a historic milestone. This marks the first time the agency has entered such an agreement for a spacecraft it no longer uses and has no plans to use again. The project aims to place ISEE-3 into a gravitationally stable orbit at the Lagrangian 1 (L1) point between the Earth and the sun.
If successful, the mission could provide a unique educational tool, allowing a new generation of scientists to study how the space environment affects aging hardware. However, the mission's success depends on the current condition of the spacecraft's instruments and the ability of the team to successfully command the probe as it zips by Earth this summer.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: ISEE-3 Reboot Project - Recovering a 30 year old space probe.
- Also: NASA Signs Agreement with Citizen Scientists Attempting to Communicate with Old Spacecraft - NASA
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