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Monday, February 17, 2025

Contact with Voyager 1 has been restored

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NASA engineers have restored contact with the unmanned Voyager 1 space probe. However, it is not known how long the ship will transmit data. “Both Voyagers are running out of power,” said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager.

The problem with the Voyager 1 probe appeared in October. The aging device switched from its primary X-band radio transmitter and began transmitting data using a much weaker S-band radio transmitter. The spacecraft automatically switched transmitters when its computer determined that Voyager 1 was underpowered. This happened after the team sent a command to turn on one of the heaters that help maintain the probe's temperature. The move prevented engineers from receiving information on the ship's status for almost a month, and data collected by Voyager's instruments also failed to arrive.

After some time, the team managed to switch Voyager 1 back to the X-band radio transmitter. Thanks to this, the spacecraft has been sending data again since mid-November.

“The power of both Voyagers is running out.”

The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, which were launched in 1977, now reside in interstellar space and are the only spacecraft that operate outside the heliosphere.

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Both probes are powered by heat from decaying plutonium, which is converted into electricity. According to NASA each year, these devices lose approximately four watts of power.

“We've known for some time that both Voyagers were running out of power,” Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told CNN. “This forced the mission to shut down the science instrument on Voyager 2 this year.” .These probes last much longer than anyone expected. It's amazing, he added.

Data transfer

Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 continuously transmit science data through the Deep Space Network, a system of radio antennas on Earth, with approximately six to eight hours of probe detections returning each day. Data is not stored on board, so everything that was sent to Earth by Voyager 1 during its transmitter troubles was lost.

Voyager 2 probe outside the heliosphereThe probe launched in 1977 was the second man-made object to leave the heliosphere – the area affected by the Sun's radiation and its magnetic field.voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/TVN24

Main photo source: 2024 Cable News Network All Rights Reserved



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