Space hackers prepare to reactivate antiquated spacecraft

  • 20 May 2014
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Crowdfunding cash successfully sponsors contact
By Iain Thomson, 20 May 2014
 
A team of space enthusiasts has picked up the first new contact with International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) probe and is preparing to fire its boosters for the first time since 1987, after a team of privateers crowdsourced over $125,000 for the project.
http://regmedia.co.uk/2014/05/20/isee3_hackers.jpgISEE-3 hackers prepare to reboot spacecraft
 ISEE-3 was launched in 1978 and was originally designated to study the Sun's magnetosphere and provide an early warning for solar storms. But in 1983 the spacecraft was repurposed as a comet chaser, going after Halley's Comet and becoming the first man-made object to pass through a comet's tail.
Since then it has been on a long and rambling orbital path and is currently slowly catching up to Earth. Some of the original engineering team got together with spacecraft designers SkyCorp to get back in contact with the probe and return it to its original mission.
 
 
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I wonder how viable the remaining fuel will be. I suppose being frozen it should be OK, however a lot of years have passed since it was launched in 1978.

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Well, if you think about it one of the Voyagers is still going, having just left our solar system...first manmade object to do so...and I believe that it was launched before this one?
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I remember the voyager being launched, it must have been either '76 or '77. I heard that it had left our system taking with it a map of how to find us, good or bad I don't know yet, it all depends who finds it 😉
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Bad if it is The Klingons, good if it is The Vulcans...LOL ;)
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It is the Goa'uld which scare me 😉
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Nah, just make sure you have a lot of  Free Jaffar Cakes to hand to Teal'c into. Then you will be OK. ;)
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It was only a matter of time...
 
First there was
 
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODg0NjQ5ODQ3OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjU4MjkzNA@@._V1_SX67_CR0,0,67,98_AL_.jpgHackers (1995)

A young boy is arrested by the US Secret Service for writing a computer virus and is banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday. Years later, he and his new-found friends discover... Read more »
 
and now...
 
SPACE HACKERS: The Movie :S
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@ wrote:
It was only a matter of time...
 
First there was
 
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODg0NjQ5ODQ3OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjU4MjkzNA@@._V1_SX67_CR0,0,67,98_AL_.jpgHackers (1995)

A young boy is arrested by the US Secret Service for writing a computer virus and is banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday. Years later, he and his new-found friends discover... Read more »
 
and now...
 
SPACE HACKERS: The Movie :S
LOL. We don't have to wait long.

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