isee3 reboot
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Rebooting an old Spacecraft –ISEE3 Reboot Support @AMSAT-DL
Achim Vollhardt, DH2VAMario Lorenz, DL5MLO For the AMSAT-DL / Bochum Observatory Team
Mario Lorenz (DL5MLO), Achim Vollhardt (DH2VA),
on behalf of the AMSAT-DL/Bochum observatory team
AMSAT-UK colloquium 2014
International Sun-Earth Explorer 3
● Launched August 12 1978,15:12:00 UTCDelta Launch 1978-079A
● Halo-Orbit at L1
● Study Sun/Earth Interaction:Plasmas, Waves, Fields
● Other in series:ISEE-1 (NASA), ISEE-2 (ESA)
Spacecraft Firsts
● First S/C to achieveSEL1 Halo Orbit
● First Cometary Encounter(Giacobini-Zinner, 1985)
● First TranscontinentalAntenna Arraying
Image: http://tmo.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-84/84W.PDF
Image Source: NASA
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
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
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
Analysis of GSFC Engineering Team, Feb 4 2014
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html
conclusion from Emily Lakdawalla:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-
3.html
Mounting Pressure to do something
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..
Bochum Observatory
Outside … and inside
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)
first success: Mar 2, 2014
17.8 dB CNR, range ca. 43 mill km
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.
Mar 14: Dennis Wingo • CEO Skycorp Inc.
• KD4ETA, SO-33 project lead
• technoarcheologist
• founder of the Lunar Orbiter
Image Recovery Project
(LOIRP)
• US american
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
lunar swing-by
swing-by required ca. 50km above lunar surface
Mike Loucks, @Astrogator_Mike, wwww.see.com
SHOW VIDEO
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
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
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 G4DDKLNA
USRP N210
S-BandRHCP
S-BandLHCP
BPF G4DDKLNA
USRP N210/GPS
Z3801Focus Room Control Room
May 22: getting telemetry Puerto Rican antenna + german-built (4 weeks!) power amplifier (DK2FD)
www.naic.edu
May 29: Telemetry Switched On
…. unfortunately switching to a rate where link would not yet close in Bochum
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 ?
Old Telemetry Screen
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!
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
Jul 2: spin up burn
required: 11 pulses
19.16 rpm
19.75 rpm
21
Jul 2: spin up successful
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
Jul 8: getting AMSAT-DL TLM display online
www.amsat-dl.org
Jul 8: course correction, result #1
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/
Jul 9: course correction, attempt #2
different thruster pair
(opposite sign)
same signature, so not
thruster related but likely
common issue
propulsion pressure gone?
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
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
Ranging
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
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
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
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
www.amsat-dl.org www.sternwarte-bochum.de
spacecollege.org/isee3
Don
Kirchner,
University
of Iowa:
"This is
the first
Type III
burst I've
seen in the
data.“
Aug 8
2014
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
ISEE-3
and
GOES:
Type III
Burst
Correlated
to Solar
Flares
Aug 10
2014
Trajectory until August 2016
http://spacecraftforall.com/ a Chrome Experiment
Mein Dank geht an:
Achim Vollhardt (DH2VA)
Mario Lorenz (DL5MLO)
AMSAT-DL
AMSAT-UK
und den
British Amateur Television Club