It will be about 11:16 Pacific Time in the USA when the old ISEE-3 (International Sun / Earth Explorer 3) space probe, also known as ICE (International Cometary Explorer) will fly by the Moon. The team of the ISEE-3 Reboot project will follow the flyby and anyone can watch an animation on the Internet thanks to Google, that among its experiments has created a website dedicated to this probe.

In recent weeks, the ISEE-3 Reboot project team tried in every way to re-start the thrusters of the old spacecraft. At one point, the operation seemed at least partially successful but in the end that activity was the last signs of life of the propulsion system. It wasn’t a failure but a depletion of the nitrogen used as a pressurant required to operate the thrusters.

Given the impossibility of changing the trajectory of the ISEE-3 spacecraft, it will keep on orbiting the Sun. The project ISEE-3 Reboot has started implementing plan B, which consists of using the probe to still do science, starting with its today’s Moon flyby.

The ISEE-3 Reboot project attracted interest among fans of space missions and astronomy and apparently someone in Google considered it interesting. Last Friday a new experiment dedicated to the ISEE-3 probe was activated allowing you to relive its long history, read the data sent by its instruments and follow its current position and its trajectory.

The experiment, called “A Spacecraft for All”, was produced to work with the Google Chrome browser. I personally tested it with the latest version of Firefox and it works normally. It probably works with all modern browsers that support WebGL graphics but there are no guarantees.

The systems of the ISEE-3 space probe that have become useless were switched off to allow the instruments to exploit all the power produced by the solar panels. The ISEE-3 Reboot project had to abandon its initial plan but will do everything possible to make the most of the fans’ donations that made this possible.

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