Civilians have managed to take control of an old NASA satellite

A crew of space enthusiasts, including a former NASA employee, used their knowledge of satellite technology along with some spare parts to control an abandoned NASA satellite. It’s the perfect maker project with Kickstarter money providing the funding, eBay as the source of parts, an old MacBook as the console and a control center located in an abandoned McDonald’s in Mountain View, California. The crowdfunded mission will take the operational, but abandoned ISEE-3 satellite in an orbit around the sun, where it will report on solar weather data. Google is helping the team share its mission data publicly on the web in a variety of formats.

I hadn’t been aware that, if you ask NASA nicely, you’ll be allowed to take the controls of a satellite floating in outer space. Clearly, I need to get out more, as this is what a group of very interested civilians are doing from their headquarters in a McDonald’s. Let’s be fair, it’s an old McDonald’s. It doesn’t serve burgers anymore. Indeed, as Betabeat reports, it’s now referred to as McMoon’s. From here, Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee who hasn’t lost his enthusiasm for space, huddles with his team to re-create the joy of satellites gone by. The ISEE-3 is a satellite that’s seen better days. It was pensioned off a while ago, but it’s still floating up there. So Cowing and his band of merry men asked NASA if they had any objection to resuscitating an old great. NASA, perhaps surprised at such an odd request, reportedly asked if Cowing needed help. No, not that sort of help. Practical help to achieve his dream. This led to Cowing’s team taking over a disused McDonald’s, because of its proximity to the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. And so today, at 10.30 a.m. PT, the McMoonies will be hosting a live lunar flyby on a Web site built with help from Google. The site is a beautiful presentation of the history of the satellite and the team’s efforts in bringing it back to life. You can even follow ISEE-3’s progress live and get some small sense of what it feels like to be in McMission Control.