TO THE MOON, MARS, AND BEYOND

Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The ISEE-C Plasma Wave Investigation

Well what do you think, a spacecraft, one of a number, that spent time investigating energy fields that are near us in space, and then off to feel the effects of flying through a comets tail. Now it has returned to interest us again.

When you see a picture of the planets on paper they are just flat objects with no life, just pretty objects.  Not the case in real life. They are moving through space and interacting with the various electric and magnetic fields in space.  Scientists try to visualize how this all takes place and play with mathematics and reams of paper.  The more real data points they can get, the better they can match their theories with what is really out there.  A very dynamic situation.

Take a look at this training website showing some ideas in graphic form.
It is a 51 page PDF file that gives a lot of information about the Maagnetosphere.
This is part of what ISEE-C and its partners were gathering data to study.
Now put yourself on the Moon during a full moon as you pass the shadowed side of Earth and pass through this magnetosphere.
Do you feel that.  And what about the Northern Lights?
Take a look.
- LRK -

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The Earth’s magnetosphere
text-book chapters 13 – 15,
except reconnection (14.2–3) and convection (15.2–3)

What is a magnetosphere?
• Term introduced by Thomas Gold in 1959
- Earth’s magnetic field determines the motion of the charged particles
• Not a “sphere”
- solar wind deforms the shape of the magnetosphere
• Proper magnetospheres (objects with internal B)
- Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
- neutron stars, pulsars, …
- magnetized moons (Ganymede) and asteroids (Gaspra?)
- actually also the environments of stars and galaxies belong to this group
• Solar wind-induced magnetospheres
- Venus, Mars, comets
Inline image 1
Earth Magnetosphere graphic - See link for more information and graphics - LRK -
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If you took a look you found that you need to understand some mathematics.  Not my best subject.
It does interest a number of scientists though.
- LRK -

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SPECIAL ISSUE ON
INSTRUMENTATION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SUN-EARTH EXPLORER SPACECRAFT

List of Papers.
- LRK -

Plasma and Energetic Particle Upstream of a Quasi-Parallel Interplanetary Shock

[17 page PDF with a number of figures with plots and images. - LRK - ]
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A four page PDF paper, just one of many papers.
- LRK -

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The ISEE-C Plasma Wave Investigation
F. L. SCARF, R. W. FREDRICKS, D. A. GURNETT, AND E. J. SMITH

[Just 4 page PDF file with circuitry, images and charts. - LRK - ]
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If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, like $152, then take a look at what has been written in book form.
- LRK -

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Earth's Magnetosphere: Formed by the Low-Latitude Boundary Layer [Hardcover]

by W.J. Heikkila

The author argues that, after five decades of debate about the interactive of solar wind with the magnetosphere, it is time to get back to basics. Starting with Newton's law, this book also examines Maxwell's equations and subsidiary equations such as continuity, constitutive relations and the Lorentz transformation; Helmholtz' theorem, and Poynting's theorem, among other methods for understanding this interaction.


  • Includes chapters on prompt particle acceleration to high energies, plasma transfer event, and the low latitude boundary layer
  • More than 200 figures illustrate the text
  • Includes a color insert
More »
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The NASA page on the ISEE-3 mission.
- LRK -

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ISEE-3

NSSDC/COSPAR ID: 1978-079A

The Explorer-class heliocentric spacecraft, International Sun-Earth Explorer 3, was part of the mother/daughter/heliocentric mission (ISEE 1, 2, and 3). The purposes of the mission were: (1) to investigate solar-terrestrial relationships at the outermost boundaries of the Earth's magnetosphere; (2) to examine in detail the structure of the solar wind near the Earth and the shock wave that forms the interface between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere; (3) to investigate motions of and mechanisms operating in the plasma sheets; and, (4) to continue the investigation of cosmic rays and solar flare emissions in the interplanetary region near 1 AU.

The three spacecraft carried a number of complementary instruments for making measurements of plasmas, energetic particles, waves, and fields. The mission thus extended the investigations of previous IMP spacecraft. The launch of three coordinated spacecraft in this mission permitted the separation of spatial and temporal effects. This heliocentric spacecraft had a spin axis normal to the ecliptic plane and a spin rate of about 20 rpm. It was initially placed into an elliptical halo orbit about the Lagrangian libration point (L1) 235 Earth radii on the sunward side of the Earth, where it continuously monitored changes in the near-Earth interplanetary medium. In conjunction with the mother and daughter spacecraft, which had eccentric geocentric orbits, this mission explored the coupling and energy transfer processes between the incident solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. In addition, the heliocentric ISEE 3 spacecraft also provided a near-Earth baseline for making cosmic-ray and other planetary measurements for comparison with corresponding measurements from deep-space probes. ISEE 3 was the first spacecraft to use the halo orbit.
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And the Wikipedia article.
- LRK -

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International Cometary Explorer

The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft (designed and launched as the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite), was launched August 12, 1978, into a heliocentric orbit. It was one of the three spacecraft, along with a mother/daughter pair (ISEE-1 and ISEE-2), of the ISEE (International Sun-Earth Explorer) international cooperative program between NASA and ESRO/ESA to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind.
ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed in a halo orbit at one of Earth-Sun Lagrangian points (L1). Renamed ICE, it became the first spacecraft to visit a comet, passing through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner within about 7,800 km of the nucleus.[1]
NASA officially suspended contact with ISEE-3 in 1997.[2] After 17 years of no contact, a group of amateurs called the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, with some support from the Skycorp company, established two-way communication with the spacecraft on May 29, 2014.[3][4]
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ISEE3-ICE.jpg
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Look at the list of instruments on the ISEE-3/ICE.
- LRK -

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Solar System Exploration

ISEE-3/ICE

Mission Type: Flyby, Orbiter
Launch Vehicle: Delta 2914 (no. 144 / Thor no. 633)
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, USA, Launch Complex 17B
NASA Center: Goddard Space Flight Center
Spacecraft Mass: 479 kg
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) solar wind plasma experiment; 2) magnetometer ; 3) low-energy cosmic-ray experiment; 4) medium-energy cosmic-ray experiment; 5) high-energy cosmic-ray experiment; 6) plasma waves experiment; 7) protons experiment; 8) cosmic-ray electrons experiment; 9) X-rays and electrons experiment; 10) radio mapping experiment ; 11) plasma composition experiment; 12) high-energy cosmic-rays experiment and 13) ground-based solar studies experiment
Spacecraft Dimensions: 16-sided body 1.7 meters in diameter, 1.6 meters high
Spacecraft Power: solar cells
Maximum Power: 173.0 W (nominal power)
Maximum Data Rate: Nominally 2048 bps during the early part of the mission, and 1024 bps during the Giacobini-Zinner encounter. The bit rate finally dropped to 64 bps (on 12/27/91)
References:
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi

National Space Science Data Center, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Solar System Log by Andrew Wilson, published 1987 by Jane's Publishing Co. Ltd.
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You see others are talking and I am just slow to pick up.
- LRK -

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TALLBLOKE'S TALKSHOP

This is a plot of signal received from the satellite and an overlay of the theoretic signal. Carrier (the spike) and modulation sidebands. The frequency will move with time because of doppler, spacecraft and earth are moving relative to each other.

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There is really a lot to understand and a lot of topics that could be considered.  It helps to be on the inside to fully grasp the jargon.
It is easy to graduate from college, get a PHD, and then spend a career on a mission if you get in on the planning stages and endure the delays, have a successful mission, and maybe participate in an extended mission.  You may even be reincarnated and get to take part in something like the Reboot ISEE-3 Project.  :-)
I can't help it.  Just one more time for the link to the ISEE-3 REBOOT PROJECT
http://spacecollege.org/isee3/
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
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http://faculty-rh.fordham.edu/siddiqi/sws/written/dsc/deep_space_chronicle.html
Soviet Web Space
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20020052429.pdf
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes, 1958-2000In book form and out of print but here is the table of contents. - LRK -
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph24/Table%20of%20Contents.pdf

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http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html
NASA History Series Publications[More reading than I have time to do, but when you want to learn something new, check it out. - LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Calling Back a Zombie Ship From the Graveyard of Space - another view

ISEE-3 Reboot Project

On the FPSPACE list David R. Woods posted a link to a New York Times article about the ISEE-3 Reboot Project.
It is a nice summary and has some nice images.
Enjoy.
- LRK -

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By JUNE 14, 2014

For 17 years, it has been drifting on a lonely course through space. Launched during the disco era and shuttered by NASA in 1997, the spacecraft is now returning to the civilization that abandoned it.

It seemed destined to pass without fanfare, except for a slight chance of slamming into the moon, and then loop aimlessly through the inner solar system.

But now, a shoestring group of civilians headquartered in a decommissioned McDonald’s have reached out and made contact with it — a long-distance handshake that was the first step toward snaring it back into Earth’s orbit.

The zombie spaceship is coming home.
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In 1999, the agency upgraded its Deep Space Network, the system of radio telescopes that communicates with distant space probes. The old transmitters that could talk with ISEE-3 were thrown away.

But ISEE-3 was never turned off, so while Earth lost its ability to talk to it, ISEE-3 was still broadcasting, waiting for its next command.

In 2008, the Deep Space Network listened briefly at the faraway spot where ISEE-3 was and heard the carrier frequency of the spacecraft’s radio — essentially a dial tone.

Two years later, NASA looked into reviving contact for the 2014 flyby, but concluded that the scientific payoff would not be worth the effort and money. Fans of the old spacecraft persisted, arguing that it could be used to train future scientists and engineers. But in February, Leonard N. Garcia, a NASA employee who had set up a Facebook page promoting ISEE-3, conceded that it was not going to happen. New transmitters could be built, he wrote, “but it would be at a price no one is willing to spend.”

That caught Mr. Wingo’s attention. “Not only is it not impossible,” he said, “I think it can work, and I know how to do it.”
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Do read the above link for another look at what can be done when you set your mind to it.
It also helps to gather together kindred spirits that complement each other.
- LRK -

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Video: The ISEE-3 Song

Tim Reyes (ISEE-3 team member): I sought someone to write a song. Local friends pointed to me and I was given a chance to contribute in this way to bring public awareness back to the long-lost spacecraft, ISEE-3.

[Go to the link to hear her sing the song. - LRK -  ] 

Artwork/Painting by Evan Nozaki - http://evnozaki.deviantart.com
Video Recorded by Nicole Morena (Super rad friend)
Lyrics by Tim Reyes (Former NASA employee):
You chose a new path for me and I left them and you behind
Off to see two comets of the Sun, tell us what you find
Send the words out until they reach the Earth to feed our thoughtful minds
A reminder of where we were, what we sought and still to find
ISEE-3 here and you are not far
Send me a command and let's see if I understand
And so you will go back to Arecibo and continue to command
So much has changed since you were not far
Let's go by the Moon, by the Earth, and return to stand above
You are like old but something new, something borrowed and somewhat blue
Closer in, together, made a team to deliver news to you
We were extensions of your fingers, my companions spun and swirled
Spinning at twenty revs per minute I could never see around
But ISEE-3 here and you are not far
Send me a command and let's see if I understand
And so you will go back to Arecibo and continue to command
So much has changed since you were not far
Let's go by the Moon, by the Earth and return to stand above
So much has changed since you were not far
We are not fragmented like continents when you left
Time has stood still for me but my electrics carry on
70s plaid, solar arrays but they keep picking at the sun
Send me a command and let's see if I understand
And so you will go back to Arecibo and command
So much has changed since you were not far
Let's go by the Moon, by the Earth and return to stand above 

Yeah let's go by the moon, and return to stand above

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It is interesting when you try to talk to an old, old, spacecraft that has been orbiting the Sun for years.
Know the feeling of expectation and crossed fingers.
I remember when Pioneer six was contacted after 35 years.
- LRK -

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The Pioneer Missions
March 26, 2007
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Pioneer 6-9
Pioneers 6-9 were launched into Solar orbit between 1965 and 1968. Their prime mission completed years ago, the spacecraft were then tracked only occasionally.

Pioneer 6 was launched on 16 December 1965. Some time after 15 December 1995 (almost 30 years after it was launched) the primary transmitter (TWT) failed. During a track on 11 July 1996 the spacecraft was commanded to switch to the backup TWT, and the downlink signal was re-acquired. The spacecraft and a few of the science instruments were again functioning.

Pioneer 6 is the oldest NASA spacecraft extant. There was a successful contact of Pioneer 6 for about two hours on 8 December 2000 to commemorate its 35th anniversary.

Pioneer 7 was launched on 17 August 1966. It was last tracked successfully on 31 March 1995. The spacecraft and one of the science instruments were still functioning.

Pioneer 8 was launched on 13 December 1967. Its primary TWT failed several years ago, but on 22 August 1996 the spacecraft was commanded to switch to the backup TWT, and the downlink signal was re-acquired. The spacecraft and one of the science instruments were again functioning.

Pioneer 9 was launched on 8 November 1968. The spacecraft failed in 1983.
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I hope you have a chance to check in on their progress.
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
http://historicspacecraft.com/Probes_Pioneer.html

Pioneer Program Overview

The Pioneer program was a series of exploration probes launched between 1958 and 1978. Pioneer probes conducted various missions, including some of the first lunar probes, investigations of conditions in interplanetary space, exploration of the planet Venus, as well as the first flybys of Jupiter and Saturn.

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ISEE-3 Reboot Project
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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Friday, June 13, 2014

ISEE-3 Reboot Project

There has been an interesting project going on which I have been remiss in mentioning.
You probably have been reading about it while I was visiting a granddaughters graduation.

If you check out the links you will see how a group of folks have gotten permission to see if they could restart a NASA satellite that had finished several missions and was turned off and left to go on its marry way, It just so happens its orbit has brought it back to our area in space and this sparked an interest in seeing how it has survived.

The big antenna at Arecibo, Pureto Rico has been used by SETI before to listen to signals from space and the weak signal of Pioneer 10 was ideal for testing.  See the following link for more infromation.
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Arecibo, Puerto Rico 1998 - 2004

Overview 1998
The Project Phoenix Targeted Search System (TSS) returned to the world's largest telescope after an eventful six years. In 1992, when the SETI Institute was last observing in Puerto Rico, the TSS had less than half its current capability and was operated as part of NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey. Since then, the U.S. Congress cancelled the HRMS, Project Phoenix was born, and Arecibo was closed for several years for major upgrades.

With a system designed to pick up interstellar communication signals operating with the world's largest telescope, it's not surprising that we can detect our own technological civilization. In this page we will present some examples of terrestrial signals.

Our favorite signal (until we get the one from ETI) is from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Launched in 1972, it now at a distance of roughly 10,000,000,000 kilometers. Its aging transmitter broadcasts with a power of only a few watts. The huge collecting area of the Arecibo antenna brings it in loud and clear.

Pioneer 10 is now at a distance of more than 11,000,000,000 km (about 6.9 billion miles). It takes more than 10 hours for its radio signal, travelling at the speed of light, to reach the Earth. After more than 10,000 days of continuous operation, the electronics in its transmitter are beginning to deteriorate. In spite of this, the signal from Pioneer 10 is still an excellent test for our system.
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Pioneer 10 Signal

This plot shows the power in 924 channels over time. Each horizontal row of dots gives a snapshot of the amount of power in each of the channels at a specific time. The larger the dot, the more power in that channel. Every 0.7 seconds a new row of dots is added. Over about two minutes the picture shown to the left builds up. If a particular channel always had a signal in it, we would see a vertical line since that channel would always have a more power than the other channels, and so would tend to have larger than average dots.

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Enough about Pioneer 10.  What you want to see for this project is information about ISEE-3.
- LRK -

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Recently in ISEE-3 Reboot Project Category
Continued ISEE-3 Detection With an 8 Foot DIsh
By Keith Cowing on June 10, 2014 9:28 AM

View image on Twitter

This Doppler oscillation measurement shows that the  
spacecraft is spinning at 19.163 ±0.02 RPM. @ISEE3Reboot 
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ISEE-3 Status Report 9 June 2014 (Afternoon)
By Keith Cowing on June 9, 2014 11:45 PM

During our pass at Arecibo today (remotely conducted via laptop in McMoons in California) we switched ISEE-3's B transmittier to a data rate of 64 bps. We hope to eventually leave it this way so as to allow dishes smaller than Arecibo (such as the one at Morehead State University) to complete the link and have solid two-way communication with ISEE-3. Participants in today's pass: McMoons, Bochum Observatory in Germany, and Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Our next pass at Arecibo opens tomorrow (Tuesday) around 2:30 pm EDT.
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More plots and information at the website.  Take a look. - LRK -
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You might well like to know more about ISEE-3, the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 or ICE as it was named International Cometary Explorer in its follow on mission to a comet tail.  - LRK -

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International Cometary Explorer

The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft (designed and launched as the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite), was launched August 12, 1978, into a heliocentric orbit. It was one of the three spacecraft, along with a mother/daughter pair (ISEE-1 and ISEE-2), of the ISEE (International Sun-Earth Explorer) international cooperative program between NASA and ESRO/ESA to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and thesolar wind.
ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed in a halo orbit at one of Earth-Sun Lagrangian points (L1). Renamed ICE, it became the first spacecraft to visit a comet, passing through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner within about 7,800 km of the nucleus.[1]
NASA officially suspended contact with ISEE-3 in 1997.[2] After 17 years of no contact, a group of amateurs called the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, with some support from the Skycorp company, established two-way communication with the spacecraft on May 29, 2014.[3][4]
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ISEE3-ICE.jpg
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How do you fund a project like this if you are not on NASA's payroll?
- LRK -

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ISEE-3 Reboot Project by Space College, Skycorp, and SpaceRef

05/29/14: The ISEE-3 Reboot Project is pleased to announce that our team has established two-way communication with the ISEE-3 spacecraft and has begun commanding it to perform specific functions.  Over the coming days and weeks our team will make an assessment of the spacecraft's overall health and refine the techniques required to fire its engines and bring it back to an orbit near Earth.

First Contact with ISEE-3 was achieved at the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. We would not have been able to achieve this effort without the gracious assistance provided by the entire staff at Arecibo.  In addition to the staff at Arecibo, our team included simultaneous listening and analysis support by AMSAT-DL at the Bochum Observatory in Germany, the Space Science Center at Morehead State University in Kentucky, and the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array in California
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$159,602
Raised towards
$125,000 goal
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If you haven't been following this project you might like to look at an earlier post where they were planning for first contact.
There is quite a learning curve when you try to put together equipment to talk to a spacecraft and then are trying to write software to command it.
I can relate to their effort having written software to use down link data from Pioneer 10 that had documentation with entries that would be supplied later, TBD. 
At least I had software print outs that I could read what the numbers were.
- LRK -

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http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-reboot-project-status-and-schedule-for-first-contact.html
ISEE-3 Reboot Project Status and Schedule for First Contact
By Keith Cowing on May 15, 2014 11:37 AM

Dennis Wingo: Today's update regards the progress of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project team in our preparations to contact the spacecraft. We started this effort 32 days ago on on April 12, 2014. Below is what we have accomplished in that time - and the challenges that lie ahead.
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I hope you have a chance to check in on their progress.
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
WordPress: http://lrkellogg.wordpress.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://mailman1.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/space-hackers-prepare-to-reboot-35-year-old-spacecraft
Space Hackers Prepare to Reboot 35-Year-Old Spacecraft
By Rachel Courtland
Posted 15 May 2014 | 17:00 GMT
Early next week, a team of volunteers will use the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to see if they can make contact with a spacecraft that hasn't fired its thrusters since 1987. If all goes well, the effort could bring the 35-year-old spacecraft, the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3), back into position near the Earth, where it could once again study the effect of solar weather on Earth's magnetosphere.
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ISEE-3 Reboot Project
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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