NASA has granted permission to a group of citizen scientists allowing them to try to revitalize a 35-year-old spacecraft.
The agency signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) that gives the California company Skycorp, Inc., a go-ahead to try to communicate with the spacecraft and possibly even control it, a NASA news release reported.
"The intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets." John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in the news release. "We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by the Earth this summer."
The spacecraft was launched in 1978; its mission was to monitor streams of solar wind hurtling towards Earth. The Intrepid ISEE-3 was also successful in discovering two comets.
After its mission was over in 1981 the craft was left to orbit the Sun; it will now be making its closest approach to Earth in over 30 years.
The new ISEE-3 Reboot Project hopes to put the craft into a "gravitationally stable point" between Earth and the Sun.
Once the craft is safely back in orbit the scientists hope to return the spacecraft to its previous state of function.
If the company is unsuccessful in contacting the spacecraft it will whiz by Earth and continue to its orbit. The researchers are unsure of the current condition of the spacecraft's equipment, but hope it will still be capable of communicating.
If the Intrepid ISEE-3 is contacted it will be used as a tool to help teach the public about spacecraft operations.
