NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, proven on this artist’s idea touring via area in opposition to a subject of stars, has been exploring our photo voltaic system since 1977, together with its twin, Voyager 2. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Whereas the Voyager 1 spacecraft continues to return science information and in any other case function as regular, the mission workforce is trying to find the supply of a system information situation.
The engineering workforce for NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is making an attempt to unravel a thriller: The interstellar explorer, which is at present over 14 billion miles from Earth, seems to be functioning usually, receiving and executing instructions from Earth, together with gathering and returning science information. However readouts from the probe’s angle articulation and management system (AACS) don’t precisely replicate what’s really occurring onboard.
The AACS controls the 45-year-old spacecraft’s orientation. Amongst different duties, it retains Voyager 1’s high-gain antenna pointed exactly at Earth, enabling it to ship information residence. All indicators counsel the AACS continues to be working, however the telemetry information it’s returning is invalid. For example, the information might seem like randomly generated, or doesn't replicate any potential state the AACS may very well be in.
The problem hasn’t triggered any onboard fault safety programs, that are designed to place the spacecraft into “secure mode” – a state the place solely important operations are carried out, giving engineers time to diagnose a difficulty. Voyager 1’s sign hasn’t weakened, both, which suggests the high-gain antenna stays in its prescribed orientation with Earth.
An artist idea depicting one in all NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft will rejoice 45 years in August and September 2022. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The workforce will proceed to observe the sign carefully as they proceed to find out whether or not the invalid information is coming immediately from the AACS or one other system concerned in producing and sending telemetry information. Till the character of the difficulty is best understood, the workforce can not anticipate whether or not this would possibly have an effect on how lengthy the spacecraft can accumulate and transmit science information.
Voyager 1 is at present 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth, and it takes gentle 20 hours and 33 minutes to journey that distance. Which means it takes roughly two days to ship a message to Voyager 1 and get a response – a delay the mission workforce is properly accustomed to.
“A thriller like that is type of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” mentioned Suzanne Dodd, venture supervisor for Voyager 1 and a couple of at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The spacecraft are each virtually 45 years outdated, which is way past what the mission planners anticipated. We’re additionally in interstellar area – a high-radiation setting that no spacecraft have flown in earlier than. So there are some huge challenges for the engineering workforce. However I believe if there’s a approach to remedy this situation with the AACS, our workforce will discover it.”
Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft, Voyager 1 and a couple of, marked 40 years of operation and exploration in August/September 2017. On this panel presentation, hear behind-the-scenes accounts from unique and present mission workforce members as they describe the engineering challenges and momentous science achievements of the mission. This program was recorded at JPL on August 24, 2017. Credit score: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
It’s potential the workforce might not discover the supply of the anomaly and can as an alternative adapt to it, Dodd mentioned. In the event that they do discover the supply, they are able to remedy the difficulty via software program adjustments or doubtlessly through the use of one of many spacecraft’s redundant hardware programs.
It wouldn’t be the primary time the Voyager workforce has relied on backup hardware: In 2017, Voyager 1’s major thrusters confirmed indicators of degradation, so engineers switched to a different set of thrusters that had initially been used in the course of the spacecraft’s planetary encounters. These thrusters labored, regardless of having been unused for 37 years.
Voyager 1’s twin, Voyager 2 (at present 12.1 billion miles, or 19.5 billion kilometers, from Earth), continues to function usually.
Launched in 1977, each Voyagers have operated far longer than mission planners anticipated, and are the one spacecraft to gather information in interstellar area. The knowledge they supply from this area has helped drive a deeper understanding of the heliosphere, the diffuse barrier the Solar creates across the planets in our photo voltaic system.
Every spacecraft produces about 4 fewer watts of electrical energy a 12 months, limiting the variety of programs the craft can run. The mission engineering workforce has switched off varied subsystems and heaters as a way to reserve energy for science devices and significant programs. No science devices have been turned off but on account of the diminishing energy, and the Voyager workforce is working to maintain the 2 spacecraft working and returning distinctive science past 2025.
Whereas the engineers proceed to work at fixing the thriller that Voyager 1 has introduced them, the mission’s scientists will proceed to take advantage of the information coming down from the spacecraft’s distinctive vantage level.
Extra In regards to the Mission
The Voyager spacecraft had been constructed by JPL, which continues to function each. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena. The Voyager missions are part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Post a Comment