TL:DR - they sent the wrong code, Voyager's communication disk is now 2degrees off where it should be, so we're not getting any messages, and whatever it's sending is missing the target by (at this point) millions of miles.
Is this how we get V'ger?
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital
After days of silence, NASA has heard from Voyager 2 in interstellar space billions of miles away.
Flight controllers accidentally sent a wrong command nearly two weeks ago that tilted the spacecraft’s antenna away from Earth and severed contact.
But now, NASA's Deep Space Network, giant radio antennas across the globe, picked up a “heartbeat signal," meaning the 46-year-old craft is alive and operating, project manager Suzanne Dodd said in an email on Tuesday.
The news “buoyed our spirits,” Ms Dodd said.
Light controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will now try to turn Voyager 2’s antenna back toward Earth.
If the command doesn’t work - and controllers doubt it will - they’ll have to wait until October for an automatic spacecraft reset.
The antenna is only a mere 2% off-kilter.
The craft - one of only two to have ever made it beyond our solar system - is more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometres) away.
It takes more than 18 hours for a signal to reach Earth from so far away.
In the coming week, the Canberra antenna - part of NASA's Deep Space Network - will also bombard Voyager 2’s vicinity with the correct command, in hopes it hits its mark, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Voyager missions.
Otherwise, NASA will have to wait until October for an automatic spacecraft reset that should restore communication, according to officials.
Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets, just a couple weeks ahead of its identical twin, Voyager 1.
Still in touch with Earth, Voyager 1 is now nearly 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, making it humanity's most distant spacecraft.
Both spacecraft were designed to find and study the edge of our solar system.
Voyager 1 has been used to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, according to NASA.
In 2018, more than 40 years after its launch, Voyager 2 entered interstellar space - the parts of the universe between star systems - in 2018.
Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly past the planet Uranus. The spacecraft discovered more than a dozen new moons during its years in space.
YES!
To clarify - I translated 2% to 2 degrees, as 90 degree means 100% not on target. Back of the napkin, but since 2% without floating digits is already FAAAAR into the BotN calc territory given the distances involved, it is as good as you can get...
Quite a lot, though you'll have to be more specific I'm afraidLadyTevar wrote: ↑2023-08-03 09:08pm Huh... I had to doubled-check when they were launched. V-2 in August 1977, V1 in Sept 1977.
Rather ironically, New River Gorge Bridge was opened the 3rd weekend of October, 1977, and we all know what happened May 1977.
I turned 7 in Sept 1977. The Voyagers have been traveling nearly all my life, and only just a few years ago hit the edge of the Solar System.
Makes one think... and ask which one will outlive the rest?
(Hopefully the Bridge.)
I meant Star Wars, ya silly bugger.EnterpriseSovereign wrote: ↑2023-08-03 11:25pmQuite a lot, though you'll have to be more specific I'm afraidLadyTevar wrote: ↑2023-08-03 09:08pm Huh... I had to doubled-check when they were launched. V-2 in August 1977, V1 in Sept 1977.
Rather ironically, New River Gorge Bridge was opened the 3rd weekend of October, 1977, and we all know what happened May 1977.
I turned 7 in Sept 1977. The Voyagers have been traveling nearly all my life, and only just a few years ago hit the edge of the Solar System.
Makes one think... and ask which one will outlive the rest?
(Hopefully the Bridge.)![]()
Isn't it still getting interesting readings because nothing else has gone that far out ?
OMG YES THIS!
I would assume proud. Any time someone designs something that works and proves useful beyond original specs they're usually proudZaune wrote: ↑2023-08-05 04:21pm I'm sure most of the people who helped design and build this probe are dead by now. Do you think they'd be proud it's still operational and sending useful data, or disappointed that we're still depending on it instead of building observatories on the moons of Saturn or something by now?