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NASA Space

NASA is Trying To Save Voyager 2 After a Power Glitch Shut Down Its Instruments (technologyreview.com) 39

UPDATE (2/8/2020): NASA technicians were able to reach Voyager 2, a whopping 11.5 billion miles from earth, and get it fully back online and collecting scientific data again.

Below is Slashdot's original story from January 31st...

Last Saturday, Voyager 2's software shut down all five of the scientific instruments onboard because the spacecraft was consuming way too much power. Engineers at NASA don't know what triggered this energy spike and are currently trying to get the interstellar probe, which was launched in 1977, back to normal operations. Its primary mission was supposed to last five years. In 2018, it officially left the solar system. In order to keep the spacecraft running properly 42 years later, NASA has had to carefully manage power consumption for the instruments and the probe's heaters. From a report: About 11.5 billion miles away, Voyager 2 was supposed to make a scheduled 360-degree rotation that would help calibrate its magnetometer (used to measure magnetic fields). The spacecraft delayed this move for still unknown reasons, leaving two other internal systems running at high power. The onboard software decided to offset this power deficit by shutting down the five scientific instruments still working. NASA engineers shut down one of the power-hungry systems and turned the science instruments back on. But the spacecraft is still not cleared for normal operations and is not collecting any new data for now. [...] It takes 17 hours for data from Earth to get to Voyager 2, and vice versa. This lag means it will take several days to solve the spacecraft's woes. As it is, the radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which powers the spacecraft, is only expected to last another five years before the plutonium-238 can no longer provide enough heat to power the probe's instruments, so Voyager 2 is on its last hurrah anyway.
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NASA is Trying To Save Voyager 2 After a Power Glitch Shut Down Its Instruments

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    but if I had to get one I think it would be of Voyager. Its just too cool.

    • +1 me too, and I don't even like tatoos.

      It's so cool what amazing stuff humanity used to be dreaming about 50 years ago (e.g. "Project Orion" anyone?).

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        Today "Orion" refers to a pumped up Lunar Mission Command Module. The conspiracy theorist in me can't help but wonder if that wasn't deliberate.

    • by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      They are talking about the NASA probe here not the Federation starship.

      ### Ducks ###

      8^)

  • Easy (Score:4, Funny)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @02:43PM (#59675992)

    It's obviously an alien parasite child that's latched onto the power conduits and is feeding off of voyager after it accidentally ran over its mama!

    Just need to sour the milk and everything will be fine!

    • It's obviously an alien parasite child that's latched onto the power conduits and is feeding off of voyager after it accidentally ran over its mama!

      Just need to sour the milk and everything will be fine!

      Its just some mynocks chewing on the power cables.

  • VGER (Score:4, Funny)

    by lazarus ( 2879 ) on Friday January 31, 2020 @02:45PM (#59675996) Journal

    Clearly the power spike was the beginning of the augmentation. Better check its trajectory.

  • what's the latency on this? Sounds like the worst lag ever.

    • ... It takes 17 hours for data from Earth to get to Voyager 2, and vice versa...

    • One light hour is about 670,000,000 miles. So 11.5 billion miles would be 17 hours. Of course, if you wanted to get a response from Voyager 2, you'd need to wait 34 hours.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • by cusco ( 717999 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `ybxib.nairb'> on Friday January 31, 2020 @05:59PM (#59676712)

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          There are three different computer types on the Voyager spacecraft, two of each kind, sometimes used for redundancy. They are proprietary, custom-built computers built from CMOS and TTL medium scale integrated circuits and discrete components. Total number of words among the six computers is about 32K. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have identical computer systems.[30][31]

          The Computer Command System (CCS), the central controller of the spacecraft, is two 18-bit word, interrupt type processors with 4096 words each of non-volatile plated wire memory. During most of the Voyager mission the two CCS computers on each spacecraft were used non-redundantly to increase the command and processing capability of the spacecraft. The CCS is nearly identical to the system flown on the Viking spacecraft.[32]

          The Flight Data System (FDS) is two 16-bit word machines with modular memories and 8198 words each.

          The Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS) is two 18-bit word machines with 4096 words each. . .

          Electrical power is supplied by three MHW-RTG radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). They are powered by plutonium-238 (distinct from the Pu-239 isotope used in nuclear weapons) and provided approximately 470 W at 30 volts DC when the spacecraft was launched

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Voyager 1 & 2 are a pair of really awesome examples of what can be accomplish - if we can get the bureaucratic jack-asses out of the way.

    I'd say - let's learn from what we did - and do it again.
    More and better instrumentation.
    Higher resolution optics.
    Larger and higher gain antennas.
    Longer-lived systems and power source - with a design life of 100 years.
    Much higher velocity. Tiny little craft on a big, honkin', BFH!
    This time with six space craft. Forward, backward, port, starboard, up, down - according

    • by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      It also shows how over engineered they were. They were only supposed to last 5 years(is) they are now approaching 50 years of operation.

      • It also shows how over engineered they were. They were only supposed to last 5 years(is) they are now approaching 50 years of operation.

        That's incorrect. They were designed for a 4-nines (or maybe 5-nines) probability of surviving for 5 years. The only way to guarantee that is to build something with a mean lifetime approaching infinity. Slight exaggeration, but if you look up some Weibull curves, you'll see what I mean.

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Much higher velocity.

      We don't have a booster capable of attaining that velocity. The Voyagers only got where they were because they were able to use gravity slingshots from both Jupiter and Saturn. Even if you used an ion drive running continuously (since you'd need to have an RTG anyway) the tank would have to be enormous. Not that it couldn't be done, but when the science budget is controlled by a herd of lawyers it's extremely unlikely.

  • all data service is provided by at$t. voyager reached its data cap and at$t throttled them to almost nothing.

  • Pew Pew Pew....

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