NASA's Lost Satellite Just Made Its First Contact With Earth in 17 Years

[shian]

[img]http://images.spaceref.com/news/spacecollege/hello.again.m.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE]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 [url]http://spacecollege.org/isee3[/url] A much more detailed description of our First Contact efforts and future plans will be published on our website next week.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://spacecollege.org/isee3/we-are-now-in-command-of-the-isee-3-spacecraft.html[/url]

The little Satellite that could

[Krinkels]

Cool where is it?

[Thelurker1234]

[QUOTE=Krinkels;44961861]Cool where is it?[/QUOTE]

ur moms bedroom

I couldn't find it in the article, or their website.

[gooooooooooogle]

[QUOTE=Krinkels;44961861]Cool where is it?[/QUOTE]

probably in space or something

[booster]

It has turned on mankind, we must kill it before it kills us.

[veDemaG]

did it have any cameras or anything on it?

[Ryz0]

aliens borrowed it obv

[Bat-shit]

aww little satellite wanted to go explore space but was scared and came back

[ah!panic]

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;44961881]ur moms bedroom [/QUOTE]

And orbiting her.

[CatFodder]

[QUOTE=Krinkels;44961861]Cool where is it?[/QUOTE]

In orbit around [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point#L1]L1[/url] according to wiki.

[Bastet]

[IMG]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hack.png[/IMG]

relevant

[Lollipoopdeck]

when isn't it relevant?

[Sableye]

"hello is there anybody out there?"

"yes"

i wish it was like this but in reality its more like a bunch of radio antennas being activated in a certain sequence that trips some circuits to start sending back information pulses

[elix]

Oh fuck yes, I was so angry that NASA was like "we just don't have the budget to re-assemble the stuff to put on the DSN to talk to it, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry".

I swear, more money gets spent on Congressional parking than NASA these days, almost.

But this is awesome. I can't wait to see what kind of science we can do with it or what we can learn from its trip out of the back yard.

[KristoferKSR]

[QUOTE=Sableye;44962848]"hello is there anybody out there?"

"yes"

i wish it was like this but in reality its more like a bunch of radio antennas being activated in a certain sequence that trips some circuits to start sending back information pulses[/QUOTE]

such a responce to that question would literally be incredible and a bit scary and awesome at the same time.

[elix]

[QUOTE=Rapist;44962963]such a responce to that question would literally be incredible and a bit scary and awesome at the same time.[/QUOTE]

No kidding.

Earth: "Hello, is anyone there?"

(two days pass)

From space: "Hi. Are you tasty?"

[TheTalon]

[QUOTE=Sableye;44962848]"hello is there anybody out there?"

"yes"

i wish it was like this but in reality its more like a bunch of radio antennas being activated in a certain sequence that trips some circuits to start sending back information pulses[/QUOTE]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal[/url]

So that's what that was

[Psycommu]

I sure hope we have enough whales to please it

[elix]

[IMG]http://images.spaceref.com/news/spacecollege/saveisee.jpg[/IMG]

[URL="http://spacecollege.org/isee3/"]From Space College's ISEE-3 Reboot page[/URL]; NASA calculated ISEE-3's return decades ago.

And they also note that Bob Farquhar's prediction was wrong. He [I]is[/I] still around and he's helping bring ISEE-3 home.

Also, from Space College, ISEE-3 is transmitting telemetry exactly as commanded from Earth:
[IMG]http://images.spaceref.com/news/spacecollege/isee.sim_spectrum.jpg[/IMG]

The solid black line is the predicted spectrum, and the received signal is pretty much bang on.

Note how ISEE-3's telemetry is currently transmitting at 512 bits a second. The old man talks a bit slow. :v:

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;44965852
Note how ISEE-3's telemetry is currently transmitting at 512 bits a second. The old man talks [B]a bit[/B] slow. :v:[/QUOTE]

aaah i see what you did there, its amazing to think that this transcends several generations of NASA engineers and today the public with tons of help and support can get a space probe running