Attempt to Move NASA Probe ISEE-3 spacecraft Hits Snag

This artist's rendition shows the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, the which later became Interplanetary Cometary Explorer. 

A private team, called the SEE-3 Reboot Project, is hoping to restart the 36-year-old spacecraft's engines for a new science mission.

Credit: NASA

The quest to rescue a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft will go on for at least another day, as a private group controlling the probe achieved only partial success with an engine firing Tuesday (July 8).

The private team operating NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft (ISEE-3) aimed to fire its engine numerous times to change the probe's trajectory and put it in a more stable position for communicating with Earth but things did not go exactly as planned.

"The first segment was full duration but only partially successful," Keith Cowing, co-leader of the SEE-3 Reboot Project, wrote in a blog post Wednesday (July 9).

"The second and third attempts failed. Possible causes (under investigation) include valve malfunction and fuel supply issues."

Controllers in California, who are beaming commands to ISEE-3 via the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, tried the burns several times.

After resetting the spacecraft and sending more commands, they stopped work for the day when their "window" of communication closed.

They noted that ISEE-3's thruster valve was opening and closing as expected, but the spacecraft wasn't accelerating.

"Either we are low on fuel in System A, or latch valve A is not working," the group said via Twitter, adding that the sun guidance sensor and accelerometers were not showing thrust.

"The ISEE-3 team is working [on] a strategy for tomorrow's pass. More to follow," the team concluded late Tuesday night.



The private group took control of the spacecraft several weeks ago after raising more than $150,000 via crowdfunding and obtaining permission from NASA, which retired the spacecraft in 1997.

ISEE-3 launched in 1978 and worked as a comet chaser and sun probe, among other roles.

The team has not yet determined what to do next with ISEE-3, focusing first on making sure the spacecraft can consistently communicate with Earth.

The clock is ticking for the SEE-3 Reboot Project to change ISEE-3's trajectory; Cowing has said that fuel consumption will become an issue by late July.

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): Untangling motion inside the Sun

Observations by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory show a two-level system of circulation inside the sun. 

Such circulation is connected to the flip of the sun's north and south magnetic poles that occurs approximately every 11 years. 

Credit: Stanford University

Using an instrument on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, called the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), scientists have overturned previous notions of how the sun's writhing insides move from equator to pole and back again, a key part of understanding how the dynamo works.

Modeling this system also lies at the heart of improving predictions of the intensity of the next solar cycle.

Using SDO, scientists see a performance of explosions and fountains on the solar surface. Shots of solar material leap into the air.

Dark blemishes called sunspots grow, combine and disappear as they travel across the sun's face. Bright loops of charged particles – captured by magnetic fields dancing around the sun – hover in the atmosphere.

This dynamic display is all powered by a complex, ever-changing magnetic current inside the sun known as the dynamo.

This magnetic system flips approximately every 11 years, with magnetic north and magnetic south switching poles.

This process is an integral part of the sun's progression toward a pinnacle of solar activity, known as solar maximum.

The team's recent results show that, instead of a simple cycle of flow moving toward the poles near the sun's surface and then back to the equator, the material inside the sun shows a double layer of circulation, with two such cycles on top of each other.

The results appear online in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Aug. 27, 2013.

"For decades people have known that the solar cycle depends on the poleward flow or material, changing the magnetic fields from one cycle to the next," said Philip Scherrer, principal investigator for HMI at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

"We mapped out what we believed to be the flow pattern in the 1990s, but the results didn't quite make sense."

Since the mid-1990s researchers have been observing movement inside the sun using a technique called helioseismology.

The technique makes use of the fact that waves course across the sun, back and forth, oscillating with an approximately five minute period.

Such waves are similar to the seismic waves that spread out under the ground during an earthquake. By monitoring the oscillations seen at the surface of the sun, scientists can gather information about the material through which the waves traveled, including what the material is made of and how fast and in what direction it is moving.

More information: iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/774/2/L29/pdf/2041-8205_774_2_L29.pdf

Spam in a can! Motion Simulator - Human Spaceflight Training

Motion Simulator for Human Spaceflight Training - Nasa's Commander Hadfield says! It tests my reactions and balance pre- and post-flight and makes me feel vaguely ill."

ESA ATV Edoardo Amaldi Boosts Space Station: The Inside Story - YouTube

Caption from ReelNASA: As the International Space Station is boosted into a higher orbit, Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov float freely to demonstrate the acceleration of the orbiting complex.

ISS Reboost
One of the crucial tasks of all ATVs is Station reboosting. This interesting and partly-scientific video shows what it’s like to be inside the ISS when it’s being accelerated.

The Station accelerates forward while the astronauts, who are in free-flight orbit around Earth (albeit in side the station)  drift backwards, relative to the Station. Thus providing further proof that Newton was indeed correct!

Robotic Walking Aids: Tokyo

(Image: Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images)
Employees from the Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne don the company's robot suit "HAL" (Hybrid Assistive Limb) for a walk on a Tokyo street, to celebrate the mass production version of the suit.

Tsukuba University professor Yoshiyuki Sankai and Cyberdyne developed the robot suit to work in unison with the wearer, anticipating the user's motions and adjusting accordingly.

The suit could help with rehabilitation, physical training, heavy labour, and rescue support at disaster sites.

Dancing Parrots