NASA Resurrects Voyager 1 Interstellar Spacecraft's Thrusters After 20 Years (space.com) 36
NASA engineers have successfully revived Voyager 1's backup thrusters, unused since 2004 and once considered defunct. Space.com reports: This remarkable feat became necessary because the spacecraft's primary thrusters, which control its orientation, have been degrading due to residue buildup. If its thrusters fail completely, Voyager 1 could lose its ability to point its antenna toward Earth, therefore cutting off communication with Earth after nearly 50 years of operation. To make matters more urgent, the team faced a strict deadline while trying to remedy the thruster situation. After May 4, the Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 -- and its twin, Voyager 2 -- was scheduled to go offline for months of upgrades. This would have made timely intervention impossible.
To solve the problem, NASA's team had to reactivate Voyager 1's long-dormant backup roll thrusters and then attempt to restart the heaters that keep them operational. If the star tracker drifted too far from its guide star during this process, the roll thrusters would automatically fire as a safety measure -- but if the heaters weren't back online by then, firing the thrusters could cause a dangerous pressure spike. So, the team had to precisely realign the star tracker before the thrusters engaged. Because Voyager is so incredibly distant, the team faced an agonizing 23-hour wait for the radio signal to travel all the way back to Earth. If the test had failed, Voyager might have already been in serious trouble. Then, on March 20, their patience was finally rewarded when Voyager responded perfectly to their commands. Within 20 minutes of receiving the signal, the team saw the thruster heaters' temperature soar -- a clear sign that the backup thrusters were firing as planned. "It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day," Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL, said in the statement. "These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It's just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager."
To solve the problem, NASA's team had to reactivate Voyager 1's long-dormant backup roll thrusters and then attempt to restart the heaters that keep them operational. If the star tracker drifted too far from its guide star during this process, the roll thrusters would automatically fire as a safety measure -- but if the heaters weren't back online by then, firing the thrusters could cause a dangerous pressure spike. So, the team had to precisely realign the star tracker before the thrusters engaged. Because Voyager is so incredibly distant, the team faced an agonizing 23-hour wait for the radio signal to travel all the way back to Earth. If the test had failed, Voyager might have already been in serious trouble. Then, on March 20, their patience was finally rewarded when Voyager responded perfectly to their commands. Within 20 minutes of receiving the signal, the team saw the thruster heaters' temperature soar -- a clear sign that the backup thrusters were firing as planned. "It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day," Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL, said in the statement. "These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It's just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager."
Imagine this... (Score:3, Insightful)
All working well after 50 years in the harshest possible environment and - look mama - no "AI" of any kind.
Re: Imagine this... (Score:5, Funny)
I was gonna say they did it using chatgpt in an agile scrum...
Re: Imagine this... (Score:3)
Oh oh forgot the most important bit - in PYTHON!
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The people that designed that thing were all fucking geniuses.
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Maybe more importantly: not distracted by the far too many distractions and interruptions of today's world.
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And not working under threats of budget cuts or policies that upset an orange turd.
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All working well after 50 years in the harshest possible environment and - look mama - no "AI" of any kind.
Let us take a minute to thank Elon Musk, without his trailblazing invention of rockets and space exploration, this would never have happened in the first place.
Don't forget Bezos (Score:4, Insightful)
Billions to send a bunch of airheads up to not-quite-space in a giant dildo over 60 years after the first proper astronaut went up in a real rocket.
Re: Imagine this... (Score:1)
Re: Imagine this... (Score:2)
Confusion over backup vs primary (Score:3)
The other article I read on this said Voyager 1 had already been operating on its backup thrusters for the past 21 years, as the primary thrusters had been disabled due to heater failure in 2004.
Re: Confusion over backup vs primary (Score:1)
Really amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
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What is really amazing is that they saw a response within 20 minutes...
They have achieved FTL communication.
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What is really amazing is that with the level of reading comprehension that you demonstrate, which strongly indicative of an IQ of less than 70, you've managed to get online in the late 90s.
Re: Really amazing (Score:1)
Re:Really amazing (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, and it is sad to think that what might finally put an end to these and other amazing missions is not the failure of the probes themselves, but budget cuts resulting from the lack of vision of an administration put in place by a disfunctional and failing democracy.
You're supposed to stand on the shoulders of giants to see further ahead, not to better shit on their heads.
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There probably was back in the day, but high power radio dishes arn't exactly thick on the ground and supporting a 50 year old mission probably isn't a high priority any more given how much other work they'll have.
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Did you come up with this? Because its spot-on and I plan to use it going forward
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The "stand on the shoulder of giants to see further ahead" part is from Carl Sagan if I remember correctly. The "shit on their heads" part is from me, altough I'm pretty sure someone way wittier than me came up with it at some point before I did.
Also, that shows where my brain sits on the intellectual scale compared to Sagan's. ;)
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Yea, about 23h one way, so round trip it about 46h close to two days. I wonder what is theoretical distance for V1/V2 signals to disappear into the background noise...(considering Shanon's channel model, modulation BW and transmitter powers).
It wasn't a miracle... (Score:2)
"It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day," Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL, said in the statement. "These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It's just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager."
Todd Barber should really give that engineer credit by name - dude deserves it for saving a 50 year old project with his idea. It wasn't a miracle, it was the engineer you decided not to name.
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They'll probably just fire him with a mass email claiming he had bad performance reviews...
Say what you want, but Engineers... (Score:2)
Because Voyager is so incredibly distant
Only for the Earthlings.
It's survived 50 years (Score:2)
Generations of brilliant engineers have been keeping this marvel of US technology alive for decades.
But you know what's most amazing? That fucking Elon Musk hasn't fired everybody involved in keeping Voyager alive at NASA.