ISEE-3 Reboot Team Unable to Change Spacecraft’s Trajectory

By Doug Lung
published

As previously reported, the ISEE-3 Reboot team was having trouble firing thrusters to change the orbit of ISEE-3. A request for help on the Internet brought responses from some of the “most qualified professionals in the world.” They managed to get the thrusters to fire briefly, but were unable to get the propulsion system working. Unfortunately, while it had enough fuel to do a power-up spin to reach its optimal rotation rate, the nitrogen propellant has bled away and the team was not able to change its trajectory. ISEE-3, which was launched in 1978, will resume its heliocentric orbit. The reboot team was able to turn on the science instruments and it is already collecting data.

A collaboration between the ISEE-3 Reboot Project and Google has resulted in the website A Spacecraft For All. The interactive website is best viewed using Google's Chrome browser. It provides graphics showing the ISEE-3 journey, its current location, and a dashboard showing telemetry and data from the science instruments.

The best website for details on ISEE-3 is http://spacecollege.org/isee3/. A posting from August 11 shows the correlation between GOES X-ray flux data and the ISEE-3 plasma wave receiver E-field readings that resulted from solar flares.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.