Voyager 1 has exited the Solar System?

FighterJock said:
Flyaway said:
Voyager 45 Years in Space (Live Public Talk)

View: https://youtu.be/SKrw5B6fufk
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Voyager 45 years in space? that makes me feel old, ouch! :eek: Is Voyager still communicating with Earth by the way? because the last thing I heard was that it was in trouble.
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Voyager 1 is still in communication and sending science data. The weird thing is that as of earlier this year, it was sending essentially random data from the attitude control system. But we know the spacecraft is still working because we are still getting data. If the AACS was really malfunctioning, the antenna wouldn't be pointed accurately enough to communicate with Earth.

earthsky.org

| EarthSky

earthsky.org earthsky.org

Voyager 2 is also still working despite a temporary communications loss in 2020 (due to maintenance on a ground station)

https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-reestablishes-contact-with-voyager2-spacecraft-oct2020/

They are both running low on power from their radiothermal generators and may have to shut off some of their surviving science instruments in the near future.

 
My elder sister was still in the womb when they launched the Voyager twins. And she is 5 years older than my old self. I was 7 when Voyager 2 flew past Neptune on August 24, 1989. The RTG are suppose to go "too weak" circa 2025: we are getting closer and closer. Note that one of the Pioneer vastly outlived the other (1995 & 2002).
 
TomS said:
FighterJock said:
Flyaway said:
Voyager 45 Years in Space (Live Public Talk)

View: https://youtu.be/SKrw5B6fufk
Click to expand...

Voyager 45 years in space? that makes me feel old, ouch! :eek: Is Voyager still communicating with Earth by the way? because the last thing I heard was that it was in trouble.
Click to expand...

Voyager 1 is still in communication and sending science data. The weird thing is that as of earlier this year, it was sending essentially random data from the attitude control system. But we know the spacecraft is still working because we are still getting data. If the AACS was really malfunctioning, the antenna wouldn't be pointed accurately enough to communicate with Earth.

earthsky.org

| EarthSky

earthsky.org earthsky.org

Voyager 2 is also still working despite a temporary communications loss in 2020 (due to maintenance on a ground station)

https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-reestablishes-contact-with-voyager2-spacecraft-oct2020/

They are both running low on power from their radiothermal generators and may have to shut off some of their surviving science instruments in the near future.

Click to expand...

Thanks TomS, it will be sad to see both Voyagers die.
 
I remember a French evening news played the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby with Pink Floyd "Shine on you crazy diamond" intro as background music. Took me the entire 1990's and a random chance encounter with the same music in 2000 to realize that, all this time, my father had the music on a vinyl at home - right under my nose. When I realized that we made a recording of the intro. Awesome music, awesome memory. I miss my dad so much. Shine on you, daddy diamond.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54W8kktFE_o
 
Archibald said:
when they launched the Voyager twins.
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Voyager 1: Launched 20 days after Elvis departed Earth.
Voyager 2: Launched 35 days after Elvis departed Earth.
Any news yet if one of them found out his whereabouts and caught up with him? Those golden records are worth nothing without his autograph on them ...
 
Please don't link to videos from that channel. They're invariably crappy clickbait (10 minutes of potted history of the Voyagers) with a stupid, dishonest title, made to promote a channel that touts the "Voyager" cryptocurrency.
 
FWIW, still unclear what this developing Solar Cycle is going to do: Whoosh or wimpy ? If former, the helio-boundary may catch up with the Voyagers again. If latter, IIRC, they'll stay in 'interstellar space' until those RTGs give out...

Off Topic: I'm rather glad the 'New Little Ice Age' spotless forecast model seems to have been falsified, as onset now would be really, really bad timing, a Murphy-bomb to rival a grumbly Alaskan / Aleutian Arc volcano going 'Pinatubo'...
 
FighterJock said:
Nik said:
FWIW, still unclear what this developing Solar Cycle is going to do: Whoosh or wimpy ?
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It is still far too early to say for sure Nik, the Sun can do very strange things when it is approaching Solar Maximum. I for one will keep a close eye on it.
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Don't do that. You will go blind!
:p

Sorry, couldn't help myself.
 
yasotay said:
FighterJock said:
Nik said:
FWIW, still unclear what this developing Solar Cycle is going to do: Whoosh or wimpy ?
Click to expand...

It is still far too early to say for sure Nik, the Sun can do very strange things when it is approaching Solar Maximum. I for one will keep a close eye on it.
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Don't do that. You will go blind!
:p

Sorry, couldn't help myself.
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Don't worry yasotay, I am getting myself a H-alpha telescope for Christmas. So that won't be a problem.
 
NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause
July 28, 2023

Once the spacecraft’s antenna is realigned with Earth, communications should resume.
A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Voyager 2 is located more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, and this change has interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the ground antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). Data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers.

Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct. 15, which should enable communication to resume. The mission team expects Voyager 2 to remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period.

Voyager 1, which is almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, continues to operate normally.

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

www.nasa.gov

Voyager

Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft ever to reach the edge of interstellars space..
www.nasa.gov www.nasa.gov
News Media Contact

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
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www.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

Once the spacecraft’s antenna is realigned with Earth, communications should resume.
www.jpl.nasa.gov www.jpl.nasa.gov
 
Saw that on Twitter Flyaway, I wonder what the problem was that caused Voyager 2s antenna to get out of alignment with Earth?
 
Voyager tracks its attitude in space using a star tracker. This consists of two sensors: one finds the Sun (brightest light in the sky), which sets two axes of rotation, then the spacecraft rolls until it finds Canopus to establish the third axis. Once you have the position of the Sun, the antenna has to be aimed at a position just off the Sun position. The beam width of the antenna is large enough that more than half of Earth's orbit falls within the beam.

This position 'just off the Sun position' is variable: at the start of the mission this was a much larger angle than it is now. So the angle has to be a variable. This gets uploaded regularly. This time, they entered the wrong value (maybe 2° instead of 0.2°).
 
Not good to hear that the controllers entered the wrong value into Voyager 2, we could have lost communications with Voyager 2 permanently if the value had been greater.
 
FighterJock said:
Not good to hear that the controllers entered the wrong value into Voyager 2, we could have lost communications with Voyager 2 permanently if the value had been greater.
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The October reset should resolve the issue regardless of how big the mistake was this time. I'm sure there will be quite a bit of review happening to see what they missed this time and how to avoid it in future.
 
Let's wait and see TomS on what happens after the review, I for one do not want this sort of thing happening again to Voyager 2.
 
www.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

Once the spacecraft’s antenna is realigned with Earth, communications should resume.
www.jpl.nasa.gov www.jpl.nasa.gov

UPDATE, Aug. 4, 2023: NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2.

The agency’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar “shout” more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory.
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Late-70’s technology was probably the ideal for spaceflight…not as clunky as Apollo tech…more resilient than today’s chips?
 
NASA wants the Voyagers to age gracefully, so it’s time for a software patch
Around a half-dozen full-timers and a few part-timers are keeping Voyager alive.

by Stephen Clark - Oct 24, 2023 12:15am GMT

Forty-six years in deep space have taken their toll on NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft. Their antiquated computers sometimes do puzzling things, their thrusters are wearing out, and their fuel lines are becoming clogged. Around half of their science instruments no longer return data, and their power levels are declining.

Still, the lean team of engineers and scientists working on the Voyager program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are taking steps to eke out every bit of life from the only two spacecraft flying in interstellar space, the vast volume of dilute gas outside the influence of the Sun's solar wind.
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arstechnica.com

NASA wants the Voyagers to age gracefully, so it’s time for a software patch

Around a half-dozen full-timers and a few part-timers are keeping Voyager alive.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
I’m afraid this might be the final curtain for Voyager 1 after 46 years.

"Recently, the TMU began transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the issue is the FDS. This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data."
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Engineers Working to Resolve Issue With Voyager 1 Computer – The Sun Spot

blogs.nasa.gov blogs.nasa.gov
 
Not the news I was expecting Flyaway, looks like we may have lost Voyager 1 if the Engineers cannot get the problem fixed. :(
 
Be a real shame if this were somehow related to the software patch performed in October.
 
Looks like it is the software patch update that was sent out to Voyager 1 back in October jstar. I am surprised the patch was not tested thoroughly before being sent out to Voyager 1, no doubt there will be a full investigation if NASA looses contact with the probe.
 

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