You may remember Nomad from the Star Trek episode The Changeling. Not quite on that scale but NASA has signed an agreement to allow citizen scientists to “wake up” a thirty-five (35) year old spacecraft this next August.
NASA has given a green light to a group of citizen scientists attempting to breathe new scientific life into a more than 35-year old agency spacecraft.
The agency has signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with Skycorp, Inc., in Los Gatos, California, allowing the company to attempt to contact, and possibly command and control, NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft as part of the company’s ISEE-3 Reboot Project. This is the first time NASA has worked such an agreement for use of a spacecraft the agency is no longer using or ever planned to use again.
The NRSAA details the technical, safety, legal and proprietary issues that will be addressed before any attempts are made to communicate with or control the 1970’s-era spacecraft as it nears the Earth in August.
“The intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets.” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by the Earth this summer.” NASA Signs Agreement with Citizen Scientists Attempting to Communicate with Old Spacecraft
Do you have any thirty-five (35) year old software you would like to start re-using? 😉
What information should you have captured for that software?
The crowdfunding is in “stretch mode,” working towards $150,000. Support at: ISEE-3 Reboot Project by Space College, Skycorp, and SpaceRef.