Within the Seventies, two spacecraft had been designed and constructed for the wildly bold mission to review the outer reaches of the photo voltaic system. Greater than 40 years later, the 2 Voyager spacecraft are, extremely sufficient, nonetheless functioning and transmitting information, at the same time as they’ve left the photo voltaic system behind and headed out into interstellar house. The 2 craft have survived numerous glitches and issues, nonetheless, a current concern with Voyager 1 has engineers at NASA scratching their heads.
Voyager 1’s altitude articulation and management system (AACS) is sending again some unusual readings, and engineers are puzzled because the craft continues to be working usually. The AACS is answerable for preserving Voyager in the fitting orientation and ensuring that its antenna is pointing towards Earth in order that the spacecraft can transmit information. However now, the AACS is sending again information that doesn’t make any sense — the info seems to be prefer it may very well be scrambled, for instance, or means that the system is in an not possible state — although the antenna continues to be pointing the fitting means and transmitting simply effective.
The excellent news is that the spacecraft continues to be transmitting, and the problem has not pressured the craft to enter secure mode. The sign continues to return by means of as robust because it was earlier than, so engineers are assured that the antenna hasn’t shifted. However why the AACS is misbehaving on this means stays a thriller.
“A thriller like that is kind of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” mentioned the venture supervisor for each Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Suzanne Dodd of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. “The spacecraft are each nearly 45 years outdated, which is much past what the mission planners anticipated. We’re additionally in interstellar house – a high-radiation atmosphere that no spacecraft have flown in earlier than. So there are some large challenges for the engineering staff. However I believe if there’s a method to resolve this concern with the AACS, our staff will discover it.”
To strive to determine what the problem is, the staff will preserve monitoring the messages despatched by the spacecraft to try to see if the issue is with the AACS itself, or with one of many methods that transmit the info. However this may take some time, as Voyager 1 is so distant — at 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth presently — that it takes a very long time for the indicators to journey that distance. It presently takes nearly two days to ship a sign and obtain a response.
The staff might or might not be capable of discover out what’s inflicting the problem, however for now, they’re joyful that the spacecraft continues to be working and that the AACS concern is a puzzle however not a direct menace to the craft’s well-being.
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