The document summarizes the efforts to reboot and regain control of the decommissioned ISEE-3 spacecraft from 2014-2016. A team of amateur radio operators and scientists were able to reestablish communication with ISEE-3 and receive telemetry, but were unsuccessful in their attempts to perform trajectory correction maneuvers due to issues with the spacecraft's propulsion system. The mission was transitioned to collecting additional science data before ISEE-3's orbit takes it out of communication range again.

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Rebooting an old Spacecraft –
ISEE3 Reboot Support @AMSAT-DL
Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA
Mario Lorenz, DL5MLO
For the AMSAT-DL / Bochum Observatory Team

2. Mario Lorenz (DL5MLO), Achim Vollhardt (DH2VA),
on behalf of the AMSAT-DL/Bochum observatory team
AMSAT-UK colloquium 2014
adapted for HaSi-Talks by Frank (DL6DBN) - Nov. 2014
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3. International Sun-Earth Explorer 3
● Launched August 12 1978,
15:12:00 UTC
Delta Launch 1978-079A
● Halo-Orbit at L1
● Study Sun/Earth Interaction:
Plasmas, Waves, Fields
● Other in series:
ISEE-1 (NASA),
ISEE-2 (ESA)
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4. Spacecraft Firsts
● First S/C to achieve
SEL1 Halo Orbit
● First Cometary Encounter
(Giacobini-Zinner, 1985)
● First Transcontinental
Antenna Arraying
Image: http://tmo.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-84/84W.PDF
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5. Image Source: NASA
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6. Further Mission of ICE
● 1985 Comet Flyby (tail) of Giacobini-Zinner
● 1986 Comet Flyby (Halley)
● 1991 Mission Update: Monitor Solar CME's
(with Ulysses (1990-2009)
● 19 Dec 1995: Modulation turned off. Carrier used for
Radio Science
● 5 May 1997: Termination of Operations
● 18 Sep 2008 DSN tracks Carrier
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7. Robert Farquhar
• born 1932 in Chicago, IL
• ISEE-3 flight director
• mission director for NEAR, CONTOUR,
MESSENGER, New Horizons
his idea: use ISEE-3 with its limited fuel and
comm system for comet encounter by ‘stealing’ it
from L1 (Giacobini-Zinner, Halley)
one final major orbit maneuver (Apr 1986):
put ISEE-3 for rendezvous with Earth-Moon
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8. 7

9. 8

10. The end...?
Dec 1995: switched off telemetry modulation, carrier remained
for JPL radio science
May 1997: ICE mission support officially ‘terminated’
Sep 2008: one final tracking pass by NASA DSN,
updating orbital data
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11. Analysis of GSFC Engineering Team, Feb 4 2014
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/
2014/02070836-isee-3.html 10

12. conclusion from Emily Lakdawalla:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-
3.html
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13. Mounting Pressure to do something
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14. media ‘candy storm’
hamradio media:
Funkamateur
CQ-DL
Southgatearc.org
amsat-uk.org
non-hamradio media:
Spiegel Online
SRF2 Wissen (swiss radio), DLF (german radio)
Frankfurter Rundschau
Bild newspaper (regional section)
guest blog ‘The Planetary Society’
Gizmag.com
and more..
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15. Bochum Observatory
Outside … and inside
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16. Getting to work (Feb 2014)
● Find frequencies/comms information:
http://mdkenny.customer.netspace.net.au/ISEE-3.pdf
● Celestial Location:
– Not on Horizons
– With help from GSFC and JPL and some data translations:
Trajectory Data loaded into Tracking Computer by James,
G3RUH
● USRP with SBX board in place and hooked to LHCP port
– No luck, but not really expected: Noise Figure ~5dB
– G4DDK Preamp used at EVE reinstalled (Michael,
DD5ER)
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17. Focus Room 20m Dish
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18. first success: Mar 2, 2014
17.8 dB CNR, range ca. 43 mill km
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19. Situation Analysis
● We have:
– Bochum Observatory Dish
– Downlink Carrier Xpndr B
● We do not have:
– Documentation about Telemetry Details, especially Uplink
Details
– Confirmation of Xpndr A (RHCP)
– Capable Transmitter
– NASA contact indicated required RX level at S/C would
be -120 dBm – Initial estimate revised: ~10 kW
Contact with NASA – and had to agree: No Go.
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20. Mar 14: Dennis Wingo
• CEO Skycorp Inc.
• KD4ETA, SO-33 project lead
• technoarcheologist
• founder of the Lunar Orbiter
Image Recovery Project
(LOIRP)
• US american
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21. THE plan 2014
reverse exit trajectory (lunar swing-by) to bleed off heliocentric velocity
and enter stable earth orbit
Mike Loucks, @Astrogator_Mike, wwww.see.com
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22. lunar swing-by
swing-by required ca. 50km above lunar surface
Mike Loucks, @Astrogator_Mike, wwww.see.com
SHOW VIDEO
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23. Apr 23: ISEE-3 Reboot Crowdfunding
● Pledge for $125k within 30 days for hardware, travel
expenses
● Turned out to be successful
● Build out Arecibo both for Receive and Transmit
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24. May 21: space act agreement with NASA
http://sservi.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ISEE-3-Space-Act-
Agreement.pdf
LOTS of legal issues.. but some really important bits:
• ‘.. team members shall be limited to US nationals only.’
• major steps need ‘Authorization to proceed’ (ATP) from NASA
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25. Get to work
● Install additional hardware
– 2nd LNA, Second USRP for XPNDR-A
– 1PPS Distribution for exact time Synchronization
– Bandpass filters for both Receive Chains
BPF G4DDK
LNA
USRP N210
S-Band
RHCP
S-Band
LHCP
BPF G4DDK
LNA
USRP N210/GPS
Focus Room Control Room
Z3801
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26. May 22: getting telemetry
Puerto Rican antenna + german-built (4 weeks!) power amplifier (DK2FD)
www.naic.edu
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27. May 29: Telemetry Switched On
…. unfortunately switching to a rate where link would not
yet close in Bochum
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28. Making Sense of the Telemetry
● ITAR Restrictions on Documents
● Some were found on public NASA servers
– Conflicting; Version Status unknown
● Trial & Error and Guessing → Frame can be decoded
● Analog calibration data is ITAR ?
● But apparently not for other contemporary S/C ?
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29. Old Telemetry Screen
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31. 30

32. manual TRX switching
powering and switching attenuators done by hand
BIG THANK YOU to Phil Perillat, Dana
Whitlow, Alessondra Springmann and the whole
Arecibo team!
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33. June: commanding and position scanning
Arecibo beamwidth (2.2 arcmin = 0.04 deg)
deviation in celestial coordinates from available data (ca. 0.5 deg)
need coherent ranging (2-way ranging, including phase-locked uplink)
for more detailed trajectory determination: NASA Deep Space Network
(DSN)
Telemetry in Bochum since Jun 25
using DSS-24 (Goldstone) for
DSN tracking passes
after some unsuccessful attempts:
Jun 26/27: 2 ranging passes with a
total of 15 range measurement points
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34. Jul 2: spin up burn
required: 11 pulses
19.16 rpm
 19.75 rpm
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36. 35

37. Jul 2: spin up successful
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38. Jul 8: course correction, attempt #1
• required: 7 m/s
• some 400+ pulses req.
• radial thrusters
• fire 45 deg each rev
• split into segments of
63 pulses max.
THE main maneuver to
get ISEE-3 on track to
lunar swing-by
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39. Jul 8: getting AMSAT-DL TLM display online
www.amsat-dl.org
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40. Jul 8: course correction, result #1
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41. Jul 8: course correction, result #2
‘denial-of-service attack‘
on webserver: ca. 500
users hammering server
simultaneously
page refresh limited to
once a minute, REAL
refresh of TLM each 2
sec!
@DutchManPaul offers
TLM mirror:
http://isee3.p3s.nl/
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42. Jul 9: course correction,
attempt #2
different thruster pair
(opposite sign)
same signature, so not
thruster related but likely
common issue
propulsion pressure gone?
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43. Jul 15: failure analysis (IRP)
fuel + pressure still there
wrong command sequence for thruster ops (documentation
incomplete..)
FIRST: switch on +28V
SECOND: open HPS A/B latch valves
THEN: fire thrusters
going for another try on Jul 16
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44. Jul 16 + 18: plumbing job and carburetor clean-out
Jul 16:
Trying correct valve sequences
Going for long pulse sequences (512) to try and blow out residual
hydrazine gas
Trying different thruster pairs: radial #1, radial #2, spin down
No significant effect on all combinations. One (?) single pulse
though
Jul 18:
using different combinations of valves, heaters and firing sequences
to learn as much as possible how spacecraft reacts
 no smoking gun (literally!), no significant thrust
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45. Ranging
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46. Jul 23 : final attempt
if everything fails:
trying to hammer the valves
(On-Off-On-Off-...) to see if
this enables fuel flow and
subsequently thrust on any
combination
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47. Jul 24: Interplanetary Citizen Science Mission
no nitrogen pressurant left, no controlled lunar swing-by possible, no return
to earth orbit
switch ISEE-3 to science telemetry
maximize data download
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48. Outlook and lessons learned
ISEE-3 will continue to orbit the sun and eventually come back to earth
can ‘civilians’ take over a decommissioned spacecraft? YES
Biggest problems:
TIME
uplink capability
navigation (need coherent ranging testbed!)
DIY DSN station. check:
www.uhf-satcom.com
groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/amateur-DSN/info
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49. Acknowledgements
AMSAT-DL BOD
especially Michael DD5ER for doing all the mech work
Thilo Elsner DJ5YM, Sternwarte Bochum
Phil Karn KA9Q, decoder magician
James Miller G3RUH, keeping track
Florian Wolters DF2ET (Webserver)
@DutchManPaul
Arecibo Staff
Mike Loucks (@Astrogator_Mike), www.see.com
ISEE-3 Reboot Project team
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50. www.amsat-dl.org
www.sternwarte-bochum.de
spacecollege.org/isee3
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51. Don
Kirchner,
University
of Iowa:
"This is
the first
Type III
burst I've
seen in the
data.“
Aug 8
2014
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52. Waving ISEE 3 Good bye
August 10th, 2014
The ISEE3 reboot team
with visitors and guests at
“McMoon”
the headquarter in a former
McDonald Drive-In
restaurant
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53. ISEE-3
and
GOES:
Type III
Burst
Correlated
to Solar
Flares
Aug 10
2014
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54. Trajectory until August 2016
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56. http://spacecraftforall.com/
a Chrome Experiment
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57. Mein Dank geht an:
Achim Vollhardt (DH2VA)
Mario Lorenz (DL5MLO)
AMSAT-DL
AMSAT-UK
und den
British Amateur Television Club
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