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scientist lost contact with the interstellar Voyager 1 probe from Oct. 19 to Oct. 24 , after a technical malfunction forced the ballistic capsule ’s main tuner transmitter to shut down , NASAofficials wrote in ablog post . Engineers have since established contact with Voyager 1 ’s weaker backup transmitter , which has n’t been used since 1981 , while they measure the situation .
" The transmitter shut - off seems to have been remind by the spacecraft ’s fault shelter organization , which autonomously responds to onboard return , " NASA officials wrote in the blog post . " For case , if the spacecraft hyperbolize its king supply , fault protection will conserve power by turning off systems that are n’t essential for keeping the spacecraft fly , " including the craft ’s primary radio transmitter , the team added .
An illustration of the Voyager 1 probe soaring through space.
With communication restored , it could take several more day or workweek for the underlying issue to be distinguish .
Interstellar IT
Communicating with Voyager 1 and its twinned ballistic capsule , Voyager 2 , is n’t childlike . Voyager 1 , which is currently more than 15 billion miles ( 24 billion kilometre ) from Earth , is the most remote human - made object in the universe of discourse . control sent from Earth take 23 hours to reach the ballistic capsule at its current emplacement beyond theedge of the solar arrangement , and responses from Voyager 1 take another 23 hour to return to Earth .
According to NASA , the current communication dislocation begin on Oct. 16 , after technologist sent Voyager 1 a command to turn on one of its heaters . While the spacecraft should have had ample great power to carry through this bid , the prompt alternatively activate Voyager 1 ’s fault protection system .
Two day later on , when NASA engineer looked for Voyager 1 ’s response with the Deep Space internet — a worldwide meshing of radio antenna used to stomach interplanetary missions — they could not discover the spacecraft ’s signal . The team eventually found Voyager 1 ’s signal afterward that day . However , the next day ( Oct. 19 ) , communicating with Voyager " appeared to stop entirely , " grant to NASA .
touch on : NASA shut off Voyager 2 science instrument as power dwindles
engine driver suspect that , during this period , Voyager 1 ’s geological fault auspices system of rules triggered two more times . This forced the space vehicle to call on off its main X - stria wireless transmitter and swap to its backup S - set transmitter , which expend a unlike frequency and is " importantly fainter " than the main vector , accord to NASA .
" While the siemens - band uses less power , Voyager 1 had not used it to communicate with Earth since 1981 , " the bureau added .
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On Oct. 22 , engineers beam a command to confirm that the spacecraft was indeed using its backup S - band transmitter . The team successfully reestablished contact with Voyager 1 two Clarence Day later on . NASA applied scientist are now act upon to name the issue that triggered Voyager 1 ’s fault protection system and to restore it to normal operations .
Voyager 1 and 2 launched in 1977 . They stay the only two spacecraft topass beyond the heliosphere — the bubble of charged solar particle that wraps around oursolar organization — making them humans ’s first ( and , so far , only ) interstellar vehicles . As the spacecraft age and move ever farther from Earth , technical military issue are becoming more frequent . So far , scientists have make out to troubleshoot these interstellar IT problems from zillion of miles aside , keeping both Voyager probes operational .
