Communication with Voyager 2 temporarily lost (hopefully)

[Owen Lucas]

Interesting article for Voyager fans:

TL;DR

"About a week ago, operators of the Voyager 2 spacecraft sent a series of commands that inadvertently caused the distant probe to point its antenna slightly away from Earth. As a result, NASA has lost contact with the spacecraft, which is nearly half a century old and presently 19.9 billion km away from the planet.

For the time being, NASA and the mission's scientists aren't panicking. In an update posted Friday, the space agency said Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation several times a year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth. It is scheduled to do so again on October 15, which should allow communication to resume. In the meantime, NASA said it does not anticipate the spacecraft veering off course."

NASA temporarily loses contact with one of its most distant spacecraft

The Voyagers were launched nearly half a century ago.

arstechnica.com

 

[vpr5703]

It would be sad if we lost this spacecraft right now. But lets be honest, it fulfilled it's primary mission in 1989. The fact that we've gotten 34 additional years of science out of this craft is amazing. I hope it starts communicating again, but if it doesn't - So long and farewell, you have done a good job.

 

[PimTac]

They will find it.


In a few hundred years.

 

[A_Harman]

V-Ger is coming....

 

[k1xv]

Isn't that the one with the Chuck Berry recording of Johnny B Goode?

 

[Jackson_Slugger]

Overengineered and awesome in all the best ways, let's hope it never boomerangs back like this:

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Sounds like they heard some signs of life from it, so that's good news.

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Since I like to visualize this stuff, I did some rough math.

Imagine the Earth was the size of a 10 mm ball bearing sitting in the palm of your hand; Voyager 2 would be over 15.6 km away!

 

[vpr5703]

Sounds like they heard some signs of life from it, so that's good news.

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Since I like to visualize this stuff, I did some rough math.

Imagine the Earth was the size of a 10 mm ball bearing sitting in the palm of your hand; Voyager 2 would be over 15.6 km away!

It's absolutely insane how far away that craft is. And up until a couple of days ago, it was still talking to us and us to it. Absolutely bonkers.

 

[kschachn]

It's absolutely insane how far away that craft is. And up until a couple of days ago, it was still talking to us and us to it. Absolutely bonkers.

This is the part that’s always impressed me:

The transmitter on each of the Voyagers is just strong enough to power an ordinary refrigerator light bulb. By the time those signals reach Earth, they're one-tenth of a billionth-trillionth of a watt.

Voyager - Two Voyagers Taught Us How to Listen to Space

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

 

[wag123]

What has happened to NASA's once 1st rate scientists/engineers?

 

[vpr5703]

This is the part that’s always impressed me:

Voyager - Two Voyagers Taught Us How to Listen to Space

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Yeah. Fun fact - You can use the Deep Space Network website and see what dish is communicating with what vehicle. https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

The dish that is listening to Voyager 1 is 70m / 230 feet in diameter. No wonder we can still hear these spacecraft. Although the signal is -160dBm, which is absolutely insanely low. The fact that we can pick it up out of the cosmic background radiation astounds me.

 

[cdlamb]

the aliens found out we were on to them!

 

[TomYoung]

They will find it.


In a few hundred years.

What does this mean? Is someone going to go out and get it? It's never coming back.

 

[PimTac]

What does this mean? Is someone going to go out and get it? It's never coming back.

I was having some fun along with referring to the first Star Trek movie.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[skyactiv]

What has happened to NASA's once 1st rate scientists/engineers?

They retired and/or died off.

 

[Nesterenko]

They retired and/or died off.

Supply chain, like everything thing else that's in short supply, or so they say. Ha ha.

 

[ripcord]

My feelings about the Voyager probes can be summed up as, "Would someone please go retrieve the Please come eat us sign from the front yard."

 

[Vern_in_IL]

They retired and/or died off.

They get paid better at Space X.

 

[KrisZ]

How is it still powered up? I thought it was too far from the sun to get any meaningful charge.
Maybe it’s closer then they say it is?

 

[kschachn]

How is it still powered up? I thought it was too far from the sun to get any meaningful charge.
Maybe it’s closer then they say it is?

It has an RTG.

It’s not closer. What kind of weirdness is that?