- 4600 - Voyager Space Craft - transmitting from outerspace. Voyager Space Craft has revealed that it has re-established contact following a brief, nerve-wracking period of radio silence. The spacecraft recently switched off one of its two radio transmitters, and experts are now on a mission to determine what caused it.
---------------------------- 4600 - Voyager Space Craft - transmitting from outerspace.
- Voyagers 1 and 2 have been soaring through
space for over 47 years and are the only two spacecraft operating in
interstellar space outside our solar system. Their advanced age has led to
increased technical issues and new challenges for the mission engineering team.
-
- Scientists suspect the transmitter shut-off
was triggered by the spacecraft's fault protection system, which autonomously
reacts to onboard problems. If the
spacecraft uses too much power, the fault protection will save energy by
switching off non-essential systems.
-
- However, it could take days or weeks for the
team to pinpoint the root cause that activated the fault protection system.
When the flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
sends instructions to the spacecraft via the agency's Deep Space Network,
Voyager 1 returns engineering data that the team evaluates to see how the
spacecraft responded to the command.
-
- This process usually takes a couple of days
- nearly 23 hours for the command to travel more than 15 billion miles from
Earth to the spacecraft, and another 23 hours for the data to return.
-
- On October 16, 2024, the flight team issued a command to activate
one of Voyager 1's heaters. Despite the spacecraft having sufficient power for
the heater, the command set off the fault protection system.
-
- The issue came to light when the Deep Space
Network failed to pick up Voyager 1's signal on October 18. Typically, the
spacecraft communicates with Earth using an X-band radio transmitter.
-
- The flight team correctly guessed that the
fault protection system had reduced the transmitter's rate of sending back
data. This mode uses less power from the spacecraft, but it also alters the
X-band signal that the Deep Space Network needs to detect.
-
- Engineers located the signal later that day,
and Voyager 1 seemed stable as the team started investigating the incident.
However, on October 19, communication seemed to cease completely.
-
- The flight team theorized that Voyager 1's
fault protection system had been triggered twice more, turning off the X-band
transmitter and switching to a second radio transmitter known as the S-band.
Although the S-band uses less power, Voyager 1 hasn't used it to communicate
with Earth since 1981.
-
- It operates on a different frequency than
the X-band transmitters, and its signal is significantly weaker. Due to the
spacecraft's distance, the flight team wasn't sure if the S-band could be
detected on Earth, but engineers with the Deep Space Network managed to locate
it.
-
- Instead of reactivating the X-band before
identifying what set off the fault protection system, the team issued a command
on October 22 to verify the functionality of the S-band transmitter. The team
is now collecting data that will assist them in understanding what transpired
and restoring Voyager 1 to its regular operations.
-
-
- November 4, 2024 Voyager
Space Craft - transmitting from outerspace. 4600
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--------------------- --- Thursday, November 7,
2024
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