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NASA

NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Receives First Commands Since March (cnet.com) 61

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Voyager 2 probe, one of NASA's most well-traveled spacecraft, has been unable to communicate with Earth for the past eight months. Voyager 2 has been wandering alone at the edge of interstellar space, gathering data some 11.6 billion miles from Earth and sending it back to us. But we haven't been able to pick up the phone and call back. The only radio antenna that can communicate with the probe, Deep Space Station 43 (DSS43) in Australia, has been offline while NASA completes a series of hardware upgrades. Some of the transmitters on DSS43 haven't been replaced for over 47 years, according to NASA. To test new hardware, the dish pinged Voyager 2 on Oct. 29 with a few commands. It was the first time since mid-March that a signal was beamed to the spacecraft. And because the probe is so far away, the communication team had to wait over 34 hours for a reply. Sure enough, Voyager 2 received the commands with no problems and sent back a "hello."
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NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Receives First Commands Since March More

NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Receives First Commands Since March

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  • "wandering" ??? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ve3oat ( 884827 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @10:19AM (#60679494) Homepage
    Voyager 2 is not "wandering" anywhere. To a first approximation, the craft is traveling along a very elongated parabolic orbit. It is on a very well-defined trajectory, not wandering at all. Sorry to spoil your poetic inclinations.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Voyager 2 is not "wandering" anywhere.

      It is traveling aimlessly also know as wandering. If it isn't wandering, then what is its destination?

    • Voyager 2 is not "wandering" anywhere. To a first approximation, the craft is traveling along a very elongated parabolic orbit. It is on a very well-defined trajectory, not wandering at all. Sorry to spoil your poetic inclinations.

      It was not the best word, but I believe the implication is that it's out exploring, straying from its home (on purpose). Not that it's uncontrolled.

    • Re: "wandering" ??? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by retostamm ( 91978 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @12:01PM (#60679816) Homepage

      The word Planet means Wanderer because the planets appear to wander against the backdrop of âoefixedâ stars.
      This orbit is also a wandering orbit, and itâ(TM)s a nice historical allusion.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ratbag ( 65209 )

        Thank you for raising the tone. I'm as big a fan of pedantry as any of us, but sometimes one has to get out of the way and let language (and a bit of education) do its thing.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        the planets appear to wander against the backdrop of fixed stars.

        Because the epicycles have been hacked.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Are we sure it's not lurking? My favorite "action verb" is "hurtling", as in "the probe is hurtling toward Pluto at record speeds". I picture a probe with the same face as a first-time roller coaster rider: "Aaahhh!" The writers must use the same fill-in-the-blank-space-story templates from Drama Inc.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eriks ( 31863 )

      The word "planet", from the Greek, means "wander" as in wanders among the "fixed" stars. So it seems to me, appropriately poetic to refer to the voyager and pioneer probes as "micro-planets", literally wandering among the stars, also appropriately nerdy, because Gandalf.

    • It should have made a right at Albuquerque.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by idji ( 984038 )
      Sorry to spoil your poetic inclination, but Voyager 2 is not on an "elongated parabolic orbit", because its eccentricity for the next few aeons is 6.284578 [nasa.gov]. This means it is on a hyperbolic orbit. A parabolic orbit has an eccentricity of exactly 1. The Jupiter flyby took it from elliptical 0.724429 coming from Earth to hyperbolic 1.338264 towards Saturn. Poetically you could say that Jupiter loosed it forever from the binds of the Sun.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ve3oat ( 884827 )
        Thanks for the clarification; it is enlightening, and you have strengthened my argument that the craft is not wandering. As for the exact shape of the "orbit", I did say "to a first approximation ... " which I believe could cover a multitude of sins, including my own.

  • ...we can barely build a printer that doesn't make you want to gouge your eyes out at some point in its short lifetime.

    • Re:And in the meantime... (Score:5, Informative)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @10:31AM (#60679544) Homepage

      In some cases you can't even communicate with even 10-year-old technology reliably any more, let alone 40+.

      Don't even get me started on the use of standardised and open protocols so that even in obsolescence things can be talked to, fixed and emulated.

      • It is one of the reasons I still buy CD's and LP's. I have a 40+ year old turntable (cartridges have been replaced) and a 30+ year old CD player. I even have a CDP101 which might still work, I've not tried using it in a decade. I have CD's from 83 that play fine and LP's from the 70's. It will all outlive me.

        • Re:And in the meantime... (Score:4, Funny)

          by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @11:36AM (#60679734) Homepage

          It will all outlive me.

          From the sound of things you only have a couple of years left in you, so yeah... it probably will outlive you.

        • Hah! I had a CDP101 too; it was good for its time. Your 70s LPs likely have much better longevity and sound quality than your early CDs, whether played through the CDP101 or something newer. Those old CDs were mastered with sometimes questionable ADCs and/or skill, and quite a few of them suffer from long-term substrate rot. I've assembled a large CD collection by buying wholesale EBay lots, throwing or giving away the countless Christmas compilations and other dross, and ripping the rest to FLAC with Accur
      • Part of why I like my old HP LaserJet 4 plus - so long as I can find a driver that talks PCL5 (proprietary, yes, but pretty consistently applied among older HP printers, and well supported on most systems), I'm in business. Don't have a PostScript module for it, but that would make it even more compatible. Also part of why I maintain a couple old 486-era computers - sometimes you just need "any old computer" to fiddle with some concept, and I can turn one of them (the other boots slowly due to testing a who
    • We can build a printer that lasts longer; itâ(TM)s not in the manufacturerâ(TM)s interest to do so. How would they sell you new printers if the old ones never died.
      • If the business model is "break even on the printer, haul in the cash on expendables", the reputation damage caused by an unreliable printer seems like a poor gamble.
        • Who said anything about unreliable? It is designed to break after a while so that people have to buy new ones. Lasting forever is not a great business model.

    • ...we can barely build a printer that doesn't make you want to gouge your eyes out at some point in its short lifetime.

      Stop buying inkjets, other technologies exist.

      It really is that simple.

      • I started college 3 years ago and bought a Brothers toner printer and a box of paper. I've gone through a couple reams of paper, and replaced the toner cartridge once and it's still running strong. The most unreliable part of it is the WiFi, but that was solved with plugging it in with USB. Never have to worry about ink drying out, and 99% of things I need are black and white anyway and there is no worry about accidentally printing a 20 page text in color and wasting the expensive ink. The high yield cartri

    • Re:And in the meantime... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @12:16PM (#60679866)

      I mean, Voyager 2 cost $895 million. I'm pretty sure if you put anything approaching that kind of investment into a printer it'll mostly work forever too. That $35 Canon all-in-one unit at Wal-mart isn't going to have the same longevity though.

  • A decent editor of a site for nerds would know and care about that sort of stupid mistake.

    • "Received" means exactly that. If you want to nitpick, you should be nitpicking the "sent back a hello". That's the acknowledge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mascot ( 120795 )

      In this case, are not both equally correct? Unless TFA mentions having had to try multiple times, it received the first commands we sent it since March. The reason we know is because it responded, but that doesn't make "received the first commands" any less true.

    • The whole point of the test was whether or not the new antenna system could send a signal to Voyager. Voyager acknowledged the signal with a reply meaning it received the new commands.

      • "Voyager acknowledged the signal with a reply meaning it received the new commands."

        No, "Voyager acknowledged the signal with a reply which meant *WE KNEW* it received the new commands.

        THAT IS THE POINT.
        This did not matter, this was not interesting, this was NOT NEWS FOR NERDS, until voyager acknowledged the new commands.

        • I'll bet you're a real hoot at parties.

        • The point is you keep missing the damn point. Voyager can send signals to Earth this entire time. Sending a signal to Voyager has been the problem due the system update. You seemingly want to say they used the wrong word when they didn't.

  • Impressed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @10:24AM (#60679520) Homepage
    I am very impressed with what the people who designed these bots, amazing after so long they work considering the components used.

    • Re:Impressed (Score:5, Informative)

      by pz ( 113803 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @12:12PM (#60679856) Journal

      ... amazing after so long they work considering the components used.

      The components used for deep space are of the highest-grade, most radiation-hardened, most reliable available. Why would you think that they weren't, just because they were made some decades ago? Think about what you would send out to space, if you were to design something now: wouldn't you use the absolute best available? That's what they did. Sure our CPUs are more capable now, our memory chips higher capacity, but that says nothing about how long a device will work.

      I own some surplus launch-qualified components in my Interesting Things collection. Even for the period, they are super well built (and yes, I was alive then and screwing around with electronics to be able to say that with some modicum of authority), with stage after stage of Q/C testing documented. These aren't components that one would have reservations or doubts about.

      But yes, we should celebrate designs and the engineers who made them, when those devices can be run in a remote, harsh environment for decade after decade, after decade.

      • Not disagreeing that the components were of the highest grade available, but I think you're overestimating the estate of the art at the time, which makes the achievement of the team even more amazing.

        The Voyagers were built in a hurry and to a budget, just after Pioneer 10/11 became the first spacecraft to venture beyond Mars. Nobody had any experience building spacecraft that had to last more than a few years.
        They were built for a primary mission of a few years (visit Jupiter/Saturn). Engineers had to go a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Agripa ( 139780 )

        Think about what you would send out to space, if you were to design something now: wouldn't you use the absolute best available?

        The best available then may not longer be available. Semiconductor processes becoming obsolete has been a continuing problem.

  • Get out and vote?

  • Voyager 2 is so far away, those commands were also sent in March.

  • Ahead of Schedule? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    NASA stated that the repairs would take 11 months and finish some time in January 2021. Does this mean the upgrade finished 3 months early?
  • Now that finally made sens why every ET I mean IT learns Hello World first.

  • and sent back a "hello."

    POP3?

  • Updated comms from Voyager 2 (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday November 03, 2020 @01:56PM (#60680316)

    'Sure enough, Voyager 2 received the commands with no problems and sent back a "hello."'

    A follow-up message from Voyager 2 was received a few hours later. It said

    "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

  • Anyone have pointers to how weak the signal is and how they pull it out of the background noise?

    Here is a great writeup on the flight computer:

    https://history.nasa.gov/compu... [nasa.gov]

    Sounds like it was a fun job back in the day.

  • This is really good news!
    I was convinced that the Klingons had destroyed it for fun and were thinking about invading our out-of-the-way solar system...

  • the probe is so far away, the communication team had to wait over 34 hours for a reply.

  • Did it save the data for all those months incommunicado? Since leaving the solar system, it's been measuring various radiation properties of interstellar space that fluctuate. If I remember correctly, the Voyager tape-based storage systems no longer function such that they have to use RAM. Maybe they summarized and compressed the data over that time.

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