NASA has announced that a group of citizen scientists can take over a 36-year-old decommissioned robotic space probe that will fly by Earth this August, according to Reuters.
The International Sun/Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) launched in 1978. It was used to study how the stream of charged particles flowing from the sun, or solar wind, interacts with Earth's magnetic field.
Once it completed its primary mission, the probe was renamed the International Comet Explorer, and was given new targets to study, like Halley's Comet as it passed Earth back in March 1986.
The probe was assigned to investigate solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections, until 1997, when NASA deactivated the spacecraft.
In August, the satellite's orbit around the sun will bring it back by Earth, something that caught the eye of a group of citizen scientists. The team successfully launched a crowd-funding project to raise $125,000 to reboot the probe last month.
On May 21, NASA gave the project its blessings, and access to technical data to help engineers make contact, according to Reuters.
"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," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science, said in a statement.
The agreement gives Skygroup, a California company working with the citizen scientists, permission to try contacting the satellite and, if possible, command and control the satellite.
The satellite is believed to still have fuel and working scientific instruments.
"Our plan is simple: we intend to contact the ISEE-3 spacecraft, command it to fire its engines and enter an orbit near Earth, and then resume its original mission," said Keith Cowing, a former NASA engineer who runs the NASA Watch website, who wrote a project status report this week.
If the effort is unsuccessful, the ISEE-3 will pass by the moon and just continue to circle the sun.
NASA has never signed an agreement to turn over a decommissioned satellite before for private use, according to Reuters.
"New data resulting from the project will be shared with the science community and the public, providing a unique tool for teaching students and the public about spacecraft operations and data-gathering," NASA said this week in a press release.
The spacecraft must be contacted within around a month and chance its orbit no later than mid-June if it wants a new mission.
"If we are successful it may also still be able to chase yet another comet," Cowing said.
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