ICE is alive ! |
ICE is alive ! |
Oct 3 2008, 08:22 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
This information from Emily is amazing.
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001673/ ICE is alive and may perhaps be assigned to a new mission. |
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Oct 3 2008, 08:27 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2920 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Full inline quote removed - you know should know better Climber! - Mod
Hi Rakhir! Such a long time you've posted here... -------------------- |
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Oct 3 2008, 08:56 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
Not so much. Last one was mid-September
However, I agree that last months, it was difficult to find the time to follow all the updates. |
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Oct 3 2008, 09:00 PM
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#4
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I actually said outloud when reading that entry
"Bloody hell!' "What?" Says Helen "A spacecraft 4 months older than me that they've not spoken to for 10 years just started working!" Remarkable. |
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Oct 3 2008, 11:23 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
That is indeed most remarkable. I reckon the spacecraft must have flown something like 25 billion km (a very rough estimate) since launch ... compares to the 18 billion Voyager 2 has done. ISEE-3/ICE was also the US contribution to the Halley comet in 1986. I have the following events on my website (the part that is not maintained):
CODE ISEE-3/ICE 12 Aug 1978 Launch 1978-1982 Halo Orbit at L1. 11 Sep 1985 Comet Giacobini-Zinner Fly-By. 01 Mar 1986 Comet Halley Flyby. 1991-1997 Solar Observations. 05 May 1997 Mission Terminated. ----------------------------------------- Oct 2008 Contact re-established -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 05:50 AM
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#6
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Member Group: Members Posts: 202 Joined: 9-September 08 Member No.: 4334 |
That's really, really incredible. Was this a JPL thing, like the MERs?
I never heard of this spacecraft before (of course, its main mission at the comets was before I was born!) |
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Oct 4 2008, 08:50 AM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2920 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
I sometimes forget how to use the proper answer button here , but I've never forget ISEE-3.
It was a time of "vaches maigres" for interplanetary spacecraft so, it was remarkable (even before been sent to a comet) because of its "out of the Earth" trajectory... that eventualy became interplanetary. It came a year after the Voyager's launched, 2 years after the Vikings landed, 3 years after Mariner 5 Mercury fly by (hot topic these days)... Souvenirs are diffuse (you know, no camera...) but I think it was the first to collect data of Halley's comet before Giotto and the Vega's even get there. Welcome back home little one. I must also say that, even if we're living now in the golden age of space exploration because of the Internet, it was also good to live at those not so remote times. I was personaly very exited by launches, en route and fly bys, but the infos you had "live" were very limited. You had basicaly to wait one more month to buy a "scientific" monthly issue. This was before I discovered AW & ST and Air & Cosmos which improved the speed (and the interest) by 4 folds. -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 11:23 AM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 754 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 1700 |
I'm curious to know who left the radio transmitters on. I suppose a reprimand wouldn't be in order in this case?
QUOTE Farquhar said that in a meeting held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory about six months ago, they were discussing ICE, and it was revealed that the fellow who was supposed to have instructed ICE to turn off its radio transmitters during the last communications session maybe had not done so. He was right; ICE was ready and waiting to communicate with Earth.
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Oct 4 2008, 12:02 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
An ignorant question here, but why would you instruct a still-functioning spacecraft to turn off it's radio transmitter? Wouldn't that almost guarantee to kill the spacecraft (or at least make it harder to find?)
I can't imagine the radio output would be powerful enough to interfere with any radio studies (and long-term tracking info might be kinda fun anyway - to measure all those funky solar pressure effects and so on....) -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Oct 4 2008, 12:16 PM
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#10
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
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Oct 4 2008, 12:49 PM
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#11
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Yes, but what's the harm in leaving the spacecraft alive? If you neglect possible radio interference with a DSN station while it's trying to communicate with another s/c on the same frequency and in the same part of the sky, but really, what are the odds of that happening?
-------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 01:00 PM
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#12
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
Has anyone looked over where ICE has been hanging out for the last 10 years?? Some seedy bar in the asteroid belt, or soaking up some rays around Venus ?? I smell a story ! |
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Oct 4 2008, 01:05 PM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1629 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
Speaking of turning off spacecraft, I recall rumors that VL-2 (Viking) that functioned for about 4 years had been turned off by mistake, thus ending its mission. I see though in Wikipedia that it was turned off "when its batteries failed".
-------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Oct 4 2008, 02:07 PM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 401 Joined: 5-January 07 From: Manchester England Member No.: 1563 |
Thats genuinely cool! I bet it's been playing tourist for a bit, sunbathing at mercury, cloud surfing venus, and meeting 'characters ' in dimly lit asteroid belt bars... It's enough to make a planet bound buggalo jealous!
Edit: Tasp, sorry for the plagarism, the idea of 'seedy asteroid belt bars' caught my imagination. Makes me think of some of some of the bars in salford where you need the confidence of a veteran space explorer to set foot! -------------------- |
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Oct 4 2008, 02:32 PM
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#15
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
Speaking of turning off spacecraft, I recall rumors that VL-2 (Viking) that functioned for about 4 years had been turned off by mistake, thus ending its mission. I see though in Wikipedia that it was turned off "when its batteries failed". I think you are thinking of Viking 1. -------------------- |
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