Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio

Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay again in 1977. I’d have been 4 years outdated then! It’s an unimaginable achievement that know-how that was constructed THAT way back continues to be working. But right here we’re in 2024, Voyager 1 and a couple of are getting older. Earlier this week, NASA needed to flip off one of many radio transmitters on Voyager 1. This pressured communication to rely on the low-power radio. Alas know-how round 50 years outdated does generally glitch and this was the results of a command to activate a heater. The end result was that Voyager 1 tripped into fault safety mode and change communications! Oops. 

Voyager 1 is a NASA area probe launched on September 5, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program to review the outer planets and past. Initially, Voyager 1’s mission targeted on flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, capturing unimaginable pictures earlier than touring outward. In 2012, it turned the primary human-made object to enter interstellar area, crossing the heliopause—the boundary between the affect of the Solar and interstellar area. It now continues to  to ship information again to Earth from over 22 billion km  away, serving to scientists study concerning the interstellar medium. There’s additionally a “Golden Document” onboard which comprises sounds and pictures of life on Earth, Voyager 1 serves as a time capsule, supposed to articulate the story of our world to any alien civilizations which will encounter it.

Just some days in the past on 24 October, NASA needed to reconnect to Voyager 1 on its outward journey as a result of one in all its radio transmitters had been turned off! Alien intervention maybe! Thrilling although that might be, alas not. 

The transmitter appears to have been turned off on account of one of many spacecraft fault safety techniques. Any time there is a matter with onboard techniques the pc will flip the techniques into safety mode to guard any additional harm. If the spacecraft attracts an excessive amount of energy from the batteries, the identical system will flip off much less important techniques to preserve energy. When the fault safety system kicks in, it’s then the job of engineers on the bottom fixing the fault.

There are challenges right here although. As a result of immense distance to Voyager 1, now about 24 billion km away, any communications to or from takes virtually 23 hours to reach. A request for information for instance means a delay of 46 hours earlier than the request arrives and the information returned! Undaunted, the workforce despatched instructions to Voyager 1 on the 16 October to activate a heater however, while the probe ought to have had sufficient energy, the command triggered the system to show off a radio transmitter to preserve energy. This was found on 18 October when the Deep Area Community was now not capable of detect the same old ping from the spacecraft. 

The engineers accurately recognized the probably reason behind the issue and located Voyager pinging away on a special frequency utilizing the alternate radio transmitte. This one hadn’t been used for the reason that early 19080’s! With the fault recognized, the workforce didn’t change instantly again to the unique transmitter simply but in case the fault triggered once more. As a substitute,they’re now working to know the fault earlier than switching again. 

Till then, Voyager 1 will proceed to speak with Earth utilizing the decrease energy transmitter because it continues its exploration out into interstellar area. 

Supply : After Pause, NASA’s Voyager 1 Communicating With Mission Team