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ICE is alive !
Rakhir
post Oct 3 2008, 08:22 PM
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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. blink.gif
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climber
post Oct 3 2008, 08:27 PM
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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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Rakhir
post Oct 3 2008, 08:56 PM
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Not so much. Last one was mid-September wink.gif
However, I agree that last months, it was difficult to find the time to follow all the updates.
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djellison
post Oct 3 2008, 09:00 PM
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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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dmuller
post Oct 3 2008, 11:23 PM
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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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Vultur
post Oct 4 2008, 05:50 AM
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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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climber
post Oct 4 2008, 08:50 AM
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I sometimes forget how to use the proper answer button here wink.gif , 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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brellis
post Oct 4 2008, 11:23 AM
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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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Juramike
post Oct 4 2008, 12:02 PM
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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


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djellison
post Oct 4 2008, 12:16 PM
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QUOTE (Juramike @ Oct 4 2008, 01:02 PM) *
Wouldn't that almost guarantee to kill the spacecraft


That's sort of the point smile.gif

Doug
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ugordan
post Oct 4 2008, 12:49 PM
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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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tasp
post Oct 4 2008, 01:00 PM
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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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scalbers
post Oct 4 2008, 01:05 PM
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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".


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marsbug
post Oct 4 2008, 02:07 PM
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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... laugh.gif It's enough to make a planet bound buggalo jealous! laugh.gif

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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tedstryk
post Oct 4 2008, 02:32 PM
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QUOTE (scalbers @ Oct 4 2008, 02:05 PM) *
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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