ISEE-3 Has Phoned Home!

[beamjockey]

The crowdfunded engineers seeking to revive the ancient ISEE-3 interplanetary spacecraft have succeeded in making two-way contact. Jason Davis tells the story.

Rather than the kiss of a handsome prince, the spacecraft was awakened by a Software-Defined Radio (27 MB PDF).

My pal Dennis Wingo is on the team. They're hoping they can command the spacecraft to change its orbit before its upcoming lunar flyby. But the clock is ticking. I wish them luck.

Comments

[planettom.livejournal.com]

Yay, I must have read a half dozen articles about this on the web and they all mention how it's making an Earth flyby, but not how close and when --- close could have been 2 million kilometers.

But the above link finally gets down to brass tacks, "August 10 lunar encounter in which it will buzz the moon’s surface by 50 kilometers." That's news I can use!

[planettom.livejournal.com]

It's strange; I sure see a lot of variable information on this. An earlier web article stated that the ISEE-3 probe would come within 50 kilometers of the Moon's surface. This one says 12,000 kilometers.