Tag Archives: Voyager
Unbreakable Voyager space probes close in on a 50 year mission
NASA Space Technology "We're definitely going to make the 50th anniversary," says Professor Garry Hunt, one of the scientists responsible for NASA's Voyager mission, as Voyager 1 recovers from an unexpected pause in communications.Launched when Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, the two Voyager spacecraft have endured almost half a century of spaceflight and, according to Hunt, should still be in contact with Earth in 2027, 50 years after leaving the planet.A spokesperson for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told The Register that the agency hopes there will be enough power from the onboard Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) to keep the antenna and at least one science instrument running until the early 2030s. The power produced by the RTGs is dwindling, and the Voyager team has been forced to make...
Nasa’s Voyager 1 breaks days of silence using device forgotten since 1981
NASA Space Technology Nasa's Voyager spacecraft in space is shown in this artist's rendering obtained from Nasa in Washington, DC, US, December 10, 2018. ReutersAt 15.4 billion miles away from Earth, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Voyager 1 spacecraft, which faces an uncertain future, fell silent recently leaving scientists unoptimistic about ever hearing back from it.However, the spacecraft did something that no one expected.The 47-year-old probe, which is one of the only spacecrafts ever to reach in interstellar space, was expected to maintain communication with mission control.But the spacecraft experienced a major setback when it plugged into its fault protection system after receiving a...
NASA’s Voyager 1 jumpstarts radio transmitter unused since 1981 to ‘phone home’ from 15.4 billion miles into space
NASA Space Technology The 47-year-old NASA Voyager 1 fell back on a radio transmitter it hadn’t used since 1981 to ping home base after a technical issue caused a days-long communication stall between Earth and the farthest-ever recorded spacecraft. The Voyager has been floating further and further away since its historic launch in 1977 and along with its twin craft, the Voyager 2, the pair are the only two spacecraft to operate in interstellar space, the region between stars. Together, the pair have explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and 48 of their moons and even carry a message from Earth on a phonograph record should they encounter any form of life in distant space, according to NASA. The Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from Earth, extending far beyond even Pluto’s orbit...
Voyager 1 returning science data again
NASA Space Technology An illustration of one of the twin Voyager spacecraft now in interstellar space. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechWASHINGTON — The four instruments on NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft are returning science data for the first time since a computer malfunction last November, as scientists hope to keep the mission operating for up to another decade.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced June 13 that the four instruments on the spacecraft, which measure plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles in interstellar space, have started returning data again. Two of the instruments started up immediately after commands were sent to the spacecraft May 19 while the other two required what JPL called “some additional work” to resume operations.The instruments had been offline since November 2023, when a computer malfunction on board the spacecraft caused it to return garbled data. A...
