The Flight of ISEE-3/ICE: Origins, Mission History, and a Legacy
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The Flight of ISEE-3/ICE: Origins, Mission History, and a Legacy 1 Robert W. Farquhar? Abstract A brief history of the ISEE-3/ICE mission is presented. ISEE-3/ICE was the first spacecraft to use a "halo orbit" and lunar gravity-assist maneuvers to achieve its mission objectives. Using these innovative trajectory techniques, ISEE-3/ICE was able to carry out a number of important scientific mission tasks including: the first continuous measurements of solar-wind conditions upstream from the Earth; the first exploration of the Earth's magnetotail between 80 and 240 Earth radii; and the first encounter with a comet. The account of the ISEE-3/ICE flight history is augmented by discussions of the political and programmatic hurdles that had to be overcome to gain approval to redirect ISEE-3/ICE to the distant geotail region, and then on to a comet. Key documents related to the approval of these extended missions are reproduced in the appendices. Finally, it is shown that, by successfully demonstrating the usefulness and practicality of halo orbits and lunar gravity-assist trajectories, ISEE-3/ICE has paved the way for numerous follow-on missions such as Hiten, Geotail, Wind, SOHO, ACE, MAP, Genesis, Triana, FIRST, Planck, and NGST.
Introduction On August 12, 1978, a spacecraft called the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) was launched towards the Sun-Earth L1 libration point. This was the beginning of a space odyssey that included four orbits around the Sun-Earth L1 point, lengthy traverses of the Earth's magnetotail, five lunar swingby maneuvers, and a pass through the tail of a comet. Now, some twenty years later, ISEE-3 [renamed International Cometary Explorer (ICE) in 1983] is located in a heliocentric orbit about 2 AU from the Earth on the other side of the Sun. ISEE-3/ICE will return to the Earth's vicinity in August 2014.
IThis paper was presented at the AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, August 10-12, 1998. 2The Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, Maryland 20723.
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During its meandering journey in the Sun-Earth-Moon system, ISEE-3/ICE has racked up an impressive list of space "firsts" including the following: • • • •
First spacecraft stationed in a libration-point orbit. First continuous monitor of solar-wind conditions upstream from the Earth. First real-time warning system for geomagnetic storms. First use of multiple lunar swingbys for orbital control in the Earth-Moon System. • First exploration of Earth's magnetotail between 80 and 240 Earth radii. • First use of lunar gravity-assist maneuver to "launch" spacecraft towards a body outside the Earth-Moon system. • First encounter with a comet. As shown in this paper, the distinguishing feature of the ISEE-3/ICE mission is its unique trajectory design. ISEE-3/ICE was the first spacecraft to use two fundamental trajectory concepts that are enabling factors in an increasing number of scientific space missions. The two concepts are known as "Halo Orbits" an
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