NASA reconnects with interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft using technology not used in decades

[Elderberry]

 Fox News By Greg Wehner 10/31/2024

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched on a tour of the gas giant planets in the solar system in 1977

After a brief pause in communications with Voyager 1, NASA re-established a connection with the interstellar spacecraft located more than 15 billion miles away from Earth, using a frequency not used more than forty years.

More recently, the spacecraft turned off one of its two transmitters after what engineers suspected was due to Voyager 1’s fault protection system, which autonomously responds to onboard issues.

The space agency said the flight team sent a command to activate one of the spacecraft’s heaters on Oct. 16. The command takes nearly 23 hours to travel from Earth to the spacecraft, and then another 23 hours for the data to travel back.

On Oct. 18, the team learned about the issue, because the Deep Space Network was unable to detect Voyager 1’s signal. Communication between NASA and the spacecraft occurs on the X-band radio transmitter, named for the frequency it uses.

The team believed Voyager 1’s fault protection system was triggered two more times and switched to a second radio transmitter called the S-band, which uses less power.

Voyager 1 had not used the S-band to communicate with Earth since 1981.

More: https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-reconnects-interstellar-voyager-1-spacecraft-using-technology-not-used-decades

[Polly Ticks]

It's incredible what they've managed to do with technology from nearly 50 years ago. Major respect to those scientists and engineers back then, as well as those now who are still working with it.   

[Gefn]

It is incredible that humans put up things like the Voyagers and landed on the moon with the technology that was available in the 60s and 70s