IMAGE is back from the dead, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration was found! Options

[El Mitico]

Launched on March 25, 2000, IMAGE, short for Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, was designed to image Earth's magnetosphere and produce the first comprehensive global images of the plasma populations in this region.

After successfully completing and extending its initial two-year mission in 2002, contact was unexpectedly lost on December 18, 2005.

After an amateur astronomer recorded observations of a satellite in high Earth orbit on January 20, 2018, his initial research suggested it was the IMAGE satellite.

you can find more in his blog

https://skyriddles.wordpress.com/2018/01/21...llite-is-alive/

pretty cool!

[Explorer1]

This is a critical point too:

Should any of the instruments be functional, NASA will convene a panel of external scientists to assess the science potential in the context of constrained budgets for operating spacecraft.

The logistics of this are interesting; they can't exactly bring back the original team, which may be long gone to other careers. Plus opening an office, getting everyone up to speed, (and all on an unplanned shoestring budget!). Luckily no need for DSN time, since it's orbiting Earth, if someone suddenly heard from Spirit...