ISEE-3: Crowdfunding Goal To Reboot 36-Year-Old NASA Probe

A private team is preparing to make contact with a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft after reaching its $125,000 crowdfunding goal on Wednesday (May 14).

The ambitious private project, the first of its type, is attempting to reuse the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 probe (ISEE-3), which launched in 1978 and ceased science operations in 1997.

ISEE-3/ICE Trajectory through 1986

Engineers are now planning to make course corrections with the spacecraft no later than mid-June, as ISEE-3 makes a close approach to Earth.

First contact, using the huge Arecibo Observatory radio dish in Puerto Rico,is planned next week.

Meeting these deadlines is pivotal, because the spacecraft won't return for another 30 to 40 years, team members say.

Artist's concept of the ISEE-3 probe's anticipated lunar flyby on Aug. 10, 2014.

Credit: Mark Maxwell / ISEE-3 Reboot Project

"Next week is crucial to the success of our project," project co-leader Dennis Wingo wrote in an update after the crowdfunding goal was reached.

"Using the dish at Arecibo gives us the best chance of being able to command the spacecraft in the very near term," Wingo added.

Track of the ISEE-3/ICE Spacecraft The Sky Mid May 2014

"Every day is exceedingly important to us right now. The spacecraft gets about the distance from the Earth to the moon closer each day, and now every day the amount of propulsion burn it takes to make the trajectory correction grows."

He added that, in all likelihood, the team will need even more money to extend ISEE-3's mission.

The team intends to move the spacecraft to the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 1 (ES-1), a gravitationally stable spot about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth. But what ISEE-3 will end up doing is not known at this point. It could chase down a comet or study space weather, project leaders have said.