The agency announced that after being able to command Voyager 2 after a gap of seven months, NASA is now able to communicate new directions and processes to the craft.
Launched in August 1977, the Voyager 2 spacecraft has been investigated Traveling outside for more than 43 years to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Repairs and upgrades by the team at NASA They have been operating at Deep Space Station 43 in Canberra, Australia since mid-March. That station is the only antenna in the world capable of communicating with probes. This is due to the Voyager 2’s deep position, the position of the antenna in the southern hemisphere, and the fact that the antenna can interface with 1970s probe technology.
Operators were making the necessary repairs to its bowl, which measures 70 meters or 230 feet across. One of its two radio transmitters has not been upgraded in 47 years.
Mission operators sent a test signal to Voyager 2 on Thursday night, which is now in intercellular space. Craftsmen pinged back Monday morning. Travel 2 Accepted the signal and executed the command that sent the mission controller.
“What makes this work unique is that we are working on all levels of the antenna, from the ground level outpost to the feedconz (which includes the home parts of the antenna receivers) in the center of the bowl. . Above the rim, “said Brass Arnold, project manager of the Deep Space Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“This test communication with Voyager 2 definitely tells us that things are on track with the work we are doing,” he said in a statement.
The upgrades are expected to be completed in February 2021.
In intercellular space
Voyager 2 became the second man-made craft to cross intercellular space in 2018, after its twin Voyager 1 completed the feat in 2012.
Although mission operators could not issue commands to Voyager 2 for a period of time, as long as there is a coronavirus epidemic, they continue to receive sensor data from the investigation. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are just outside the heliosphere, a bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the sun.
“We’ve always been talking to the spacecraft,” said Suzanne Dodd, director of the JPL’s Interplanetary Networks Directorate and project manager of the Visor Interseller mission. We have been doing this every day. ” “We can see its health. If it wasn’t healthy, we would know.”
However, during repairs, If there’s an issue with this craft, NASA doesn’t have a way to tell it quickly to optimize the course.
Because the on-board systems of Voyager 1 and 2 are very old, they have 200,000 times less memory than smartphones, he said. That technology, with less complexity, can be a boon to the longevity of the investigation, which has been strong for more than four decades.
“Probably a factor as to why they’re doing so poorly, and why they’re doing so poorly.” “The Voyagers have an excellent track record. The spacecraft are weakly flexible.”
This flexibility enables humanity to acquire new information about the outer edges of our solar system. And this data is a reminder that beyond the tribe and the class and the ideology and the political party, we are all part of an infinitely great thing.
From Vizer 2’s point of view, looking at us, all our struggles are unique as we await the election results.
The great astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in his 1994 book “Pele Blue Dot”, “There can be no better demonstration of the folly of human emotion than this rare picture of our small world.
“For me, it emphasizes our responsibility to treat each other with more love, and to protect and nurture the pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known.”
