Following current communication points, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft resorted to utilizing a backup radio transmitter that has been inactive since 1981.
The interstellar explorer skilled a quick pause in communications after placing itself in a protecting state to preserve energy. This was triggered by a command despatched on Oct. 16 from NASA’s Deep Area Community (DSN) — a world array of big radio antennas — instructing the spacecraft to activate one among its heaters.
The mission’s flight staff first realized there was a difficulty with Voyager 1 on Oct. 18, when the spacecraft failed to reply to that command. The staff later found that the spacecraft had turned off its main X-band radio transmitter and as a substitute converted to its secondary S-band radio transmitter, which makes use of much less energy, in line with an announcement from NASA.
“The transmitter shut-off appears to have been prompted by the spacecraft’s fault safety system, which autonomously responds to onboard points,” NASA officers mentioned within the assertion. “The staff is now working to assemble info that can assist them determine what occurred and return Voyager 1 to regular operations.”
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Voyager 1’s fault safety system may be triggered for numerous causes, comparable to if the spacecraft overdraws its energy provide. If that occurs, the spacecraft will flip off all non-essential programs to preserve energy and stay in flight.
After sending directions to Voyager 1 on Oct. 16, the staff anticipated to obtain knowledge again from the spacecraft inside a few days; it usually takes about 23 hours for a command to journey greater than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) to succeed in the spacecraft in interstellar area, after which one other 23 hours for the flight staff on Earth to obtain a sign again.
Nonetheless, on Oct. 18, the staff was unable to detect Voyager 1’s sign on the X-band frequency that the DSN antennas have been listening for. This was as a result of, to make use of much less energy, the spacecraft’s fault safety system lowered the speed at which its radio transmitter was sending again knowledge. The flight staff was in a position to find a sign later that day – however then, on Oct. 19, communication with Voyager 1 stopped totally when its X-band transmitter was turned off.
The spacecraft’s fault safety system is believed to have been triggered twice extra, finally inflicting it to change to the S-band radio transmitter, which, previous to that date, hadn’t been used since 1981. Given the spacecraft is positioned a lot farther away in interstellar area immediately than it was 43 years in the past, the flight staff was unsure a sign on the S-band frequency might be detected — particularly as a result of it transmits a considerably fainter sign whereas utilizing much less energy.
Nonetheless, the staff did not need to danger sending one other sign to the X-band transmitter and triggering the fault safety system once more. So, as a substitute, a command was despatched to the S-band transmitter on Oct. 22. Two days later, on Oct. 24, the staff was lastly in a position to reconnect with Voyager 1.
Now, the staff will examine what could have triggered the spacecraft’s fault safety system within the first place, given Voyager 1 ought to have had ample energy to function the heater. Nonetheless, it could be weeks earlier than operators establish the underlying difficulty, in line with the assertion.
Voyager 1, which launched in 1977, ventured into interstellar area in 2012, changing into the primary spacecraft to cross the boundary of our photo voltaic system. Its time in deep area has taken a toll on its devices and triggered an rising variety of technical points. Earlier this yr, the staff needed to repair a separate communications glitch that was inflicting the spacecraft to transmit gibberish.
Whereas spacecraft’s superior age and distance from Earth could make upkeep difficult, Voyager 1 continues to return important knowledge from past the photo voltaic system.
