08-10-2014, 03:37 AM
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#1
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Civilian Group Revives 36-Year-Old Spacecraft; Operate It From Abandoned McDonald's
Civilians in Abandoned McDonald’s Seize Control of Wandering Space Satellite
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For the first time in history, an independent crew is taking control of a NASA satellite and running a crowdfunded mission. They’re doing it all from a makeshift mission control center in an abandoned McDonald’s in Mountain View, CA, using old radio parts from eBay and a salvaged flat screen TV.
“If I could come up with another absurd detail, I would,” Keith Cowing, the project’s team lead, told Betabeat.
The ISEE-3 is a disco-era satellite that used to measure space weather like solar wind and radiation, but went out of commission decades ago. Now, a small team led by Mr. Cowing have taken control of the satellite with NASA’s silent blessing.
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Once they were able to communicate with the satellite, they established a new orbit around the Sun, slightly larger than the Earth’s orbit. It’ll remain close enough to the Earth for a while, allowing the crowd-sourced community to run tests for a long time. But for how long?
“No idea,” Mr. Cowing said. “It’s been on for 36 years, so another 36? Nobody knows. A long time.”
In the mean time, they’ll be constantly taking in solar weather data — and then sharing it with everyone.
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A really cool story.
They managed to get the spacecraft operating again, to a degree, 17 years after NASA had ended its mission.
5 of 13 science instruments are still operational.
All data will be available to the public on an open source basis.
Google has helped by building a neat website for the spacecraft where you can learn it's history, see its current position live, and see the data.
Today, August 10th, at ~11:30 AM Mountain time, ISEE-3 will make a close approach to the Moon (15,000 km).
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Last edited by Nehkara; 08-10-2014 at 03:42 AM.
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08-10-2014, 10:21 AM
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#2
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Franchise Player
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Have they also taken control of the abandon mcflurry machine?
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08-10-2014, 10:31 AM
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#3
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Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Crowsnest Pass
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What if Dr. Evil takes control and threatens to crash the satellite into Washington for a ransom of $1 Million?
Last edited by troutman; 08-10-2014 at 08:57 PM.
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08-10-2014, 03:35 PM
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#4
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First Line Centre
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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Can they bring back McPizza? That was pretty good.
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08-10-2014, 03:57 PM
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#5
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Franchise Player
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: the dark side of Sesame Street
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has an abandoned McDonald's ever been a fortress of supervillainy before?
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08-10-2014, 08:30 PM
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#6
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Franchise Player
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BloodFetish
Can they bring back McPizza? That was pretty good.
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Hey Sherman, they have control of a satellite, not a way-back machine.....
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08-10-2014, 09:01 PM
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#7
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In Your MCP
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Watching Hot Dog Hans
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So what can someone do with the info they get? Anything?
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