NASA has resumed communications with the orbital spacecraft that is setting records after several months with no way to establish communications with Voyager 2.
(Photo: NASA-JPL / Caltech)
This was Voyager 2 when it was assembled at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida back in 1977. 40 years later, the spacecraft reached the edge of our solar system.
The collapse of the bond, which lasted almost eight months and a pandemic after March, was not caused by a false error, or some irregularity of outdoor space (although that is also the case).
It was more a matter of regular maintenance in this example. And then, since the Voyager 2 is one of the longest-made objects on Earth, leaving behind the planet and of course the entire solar system, nothing else is quite normal.
In March 2020, ScienceAlert reported that NASA had announced that Australia’s Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43) was the only transmitter on Earth capable of sending orders to Voyager 2, calling for significant alterations that had to be closed for nearly 11 months for the work to be completed.
Voyager 2, which is actually more than 18.7 billion kilometers (11.6 billion miles) from Earth and is growing all the time, will not be able to receive any signals from Earth during the period. this, while scientists are still transmitting their own emissions back to us.
Welcome back, Voyager 2!
Fortunately, NASA has announced that Voyager 2 has returned a signal confirming that the instructions have been received and that it has executed the commands without any problems.
As of right now, the reconstruction of DSS-43 is still ongoing and on schedule to be completed in February 2021, but enough of the improvements have been submitted to begin initial research.
Although NASA was unable to send the full orders of Voyager 2, at the end of October, when the antenna was largely refueled, it sent one test message to the spacecraft. An on-board system with the command loss timer is used to help the spacecraft determine whether it has lost contact with Earth and, by entering a type of electronic slumber, can to secure himself. The October test of the timer was reset, and the spacecraft was successfully ordered to begin operation.
“What makes this activity unique is that we do work at all levels of the antenna, from the ground footing all the way up to the feedcones at the center of the dish. stretches above the edge, ”says NASA Deep Space Network Project Manager Brad Arnold.
“This test conversation with Voyager 2 definitely tells us that things are on the way with the work we are doing. “
Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager mission and head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Interplant Network Steering Group, told the New York Times that the people of DSN in Canberra did an amazing job in pandemic situations to upgrade DSS 43.
She also shared her complete belief in the antenna that it would work just perfectly for another two decades. Way past the Voyagers until they are ready.
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Improvements
The records for the longest spacecraft ever flown and for the longest flight are held by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Over the years, Voyager 2 has seen a few hiccups, but in the dark it is constantly finding its way through, creating ideas about the boundaries that separate our planetary system from most of the Milky Way galaxy.
As Voyager 2 continues chugging, Ms Dodd and her team plan to switch off the Charged Particle engine, one of their scientific sensors. Doing this would ensure that the spacecraft’s small power supply keeps its other systems warm enough to operate, especially their telecommunications transmitter.
While it will reduce the science performance of the spacecraft, survival is now the top priority.
The crew expects both spacecraft to run for another four to eight years, and NASA received an additional three years of flight time with the crew last year.
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