Photo: NASA
Voyager 1 retro transmitter turn on
NASA lost contact with the interstellar Voyager 1 space apparatus for almost seven days after a technical error shut off the test’s main transmitter. Using Voyager’s weaker backup transmitter, engineers are surveying the issue from 15 billion miles away.
Researchers lost contact with the interstellar Voyager 1 test from Oct. 19 to Oct. 24, after a technical glitch forced the spacecraft’s main radio transmitter to shut down, NASA authorities wrote in a blog post. Engineers have since established contact with Voyager 1’s weaker backup transmitter, which hasn’t been used since 1981, while they assess the situation.
“The transmitter shut-off appears to have been prompted by the spacecraft’s fault protection system, which independently responds to onboard issues,” NASA authorities wrote in the blog post. “For example, assuming the rocket overdraws its power supply, fault protection will save power by switching off system that aren’t fundamental for keeping the spacecraft flying,” including the craft’s main radio transmitter, the team added.
With communication restored, it could require a few additional days or weeks for the basic issue to be identified.
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Interstellar IT
Communicating with Voyager 1 and its twin rocket, Voyager 2, isn’t basic. Voyager 1, which is presently in excess of 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, is the most distant human-made object in the universe. Commands sent from Earth require 23 hours to arrive at the spacecraft at its ongoing situation past the edge of the solar system, and responses from V1 require an additional 23 hours to get back to Earth.
As indicated by NASA, the ongoing correspondence breakdown started on Oct. 16, after engineers sent V1 an order to turn on one of its heaters. While the spacecraft should have had ample power to execute this order, the prompt instead triggered V1’s fault protection system.
After two days, when NASA engineers searched for Voyager 1’s response with the Deep Space Network a Worldwide Network of radio antennae used to help interplanetary missions they couldn’t recognize the space’s transmission. The team eventually found Voyager 1’s sign later that day. Howver, the following day (Oct. 19), correspondence with Voyager “appeared to stop completely,” as per NASA.
Engineers suspect that, during this period, Voyager 1’s fault protection system triggered two more times. This forced the spacecraft to turn off its main X-band radio transmitter and switch to its backup S-band transmitter, which uses a different frequency and is “significantly fainter” than the main transmitter, according to NASA.
“While the S-band uses less power, V1 had not used it to communicate with Earth since 1981,” the agency added.
On Oct. 22, engineers sent a command to confirm that the spacecraft was indeed using its backup S-band transmitter. The team successfully reestablished contact with V1 two days later. NASA engineers are now working to diagnose the issue that triggered Voyager 1’s fault protection system and to restore it to normal operations.
