Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

tomasz@lemmy.sieprawski.pl to Technology@lemmy.world – 622 points –
Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth due to computer issue | CNN
edition.cnn.com

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a computer glitch that’s causing a bit of a communication breakdown between the 46-year-old probe and its mission team on Earth.

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For those who didn’t read the article, voyager 1 is still sending and transmitting data. It’s stuck in a loop sending the same packets to Earth on repeat but it is receiving commands just fine. It’s not completely dark.

That's fantastic, that means all they have to do is reset some components and it should restore functionality. I say should, it's still a scary thing to turn on/off components om a satellite bcz you aren't guaranteed they'll come on. Nasa people usually prefer soft resets to hard resets of components, but we'll see what happens.

One of the satellites I worked on had to have a software update to do a soft reset of a component every time it tried to write certain data. It was really scary bcz we thought we had lost one of our redundancies right after launch, which would have sucked.

But, we didn't. Anyway, just wanted to give a little bit of insight into what the FOT might be thinking about while they're trying to recover the satellite to nominal state.

Yeah I got very sad when I saw the headline and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Voyager 1’s death will be far sadder than most public figures. Maybe any.

Same, for a moment I was really concerned. Voyager is like a lifetime achievement for humanity at this point. When it stops communicating its going to be a big loss for the scientific community, and population as a whole. I'm not looking forward to hearing about its loss of functionality in the next decade or so.

Will we ever reach as far again?

I really can't say, I'm not privy to any of the outer solar system projects that might be in the works. Voyager was originally intended to do flyby of the outer planets, and then it headed out of the solar system. I think the trajectory was always designed with the idea that it could exit the solar system. As far as I'm aware, we've done a few missions to asteroids, but nothing that is going out to do flyby of the outer planets. But, I could be wrong, don't take my word for it. All of the stuff I have worked on has been near earth, or pointing away from the earth but still within the vicinity of L1 and L2 Lagrange points.

You'd be surprised how many missions nasa has in the works at any one time.

From ChatGPT just now:

Me: Summarize projects active as of early 2022 involving plans to send objects out of the solar system

ChatGPT (v4) Voyager 1 and 2: Continuing their journey, both launched in the 1970s. They are studying the outer solar system and interstellar space. New Horizons: After its Pluto flyby, it's on an extended mission to explore the Kuiper Belt and beyond.

Pioneer 10 and 11: Although no longer sending data, they continue to travel out of the solar system.

Interstellar Probe Study: A NASA conceptual study for a mission to explore the interstellar medium.

Breakthrough Starshot Initiative: A research and engineering project aiming to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail spacecraft, capable of making the journey to Alpha Centauri.

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Programs: Some concepts under study, such as solar sails and fusion propulsion, could potentially send craft out of the solar system. These projects represent a blend of ongoing missions, conceptual studies, and advanced propulsion research with potential applications for future interstellar travel.

Incidentally, the light sail starshot project is talking about speeds of 0.3c.

I fucking love that project. Heard about it from Neil Tyson.

I think when we have space based fuel and fabrication infrastructure we'll be able to make some interesting projects, some huge thing that just burns its rockets at full power through the solar system.

Or a very robust probe fired from a giant nuclear cannon on the dark side of the moon. If you start the journey at top speed that cuts out all the acceleration time, we could have stuff popping off in every direction.

I don't know if I would consider Voyager to be 'dead' if it stops transmitting.

If I put a message in a bottle, with a blinky light on it, then throw it into the ocean, the message is still there even if the blinky light goes out.

So the title did its job which is you understand nothing until you enter their site, drive traffic, display ads, and possibly collect your data in the process.

Sure and Lemmy did its work by letting me and others relay the info. I hate ads as much as the next guy, especially targeted ads, but the internet is free and I don’t pay CNN a dime so I’ll take the hit for you this time. Next time, you click the clickbait and fill us in ☺️

possibly collect your data in the process

Nooo they respect your privacy just share your stuff with 967 of their partners

Ads are a shitty part of the internet experience, but what exactly is your point here…?

My point is the title in journalism went from a summary of the story to a confusing false statement that might give you a hint of what the story is about.

In this story the title is clearly saying Voyager has stopped communicating with Earth which is false.

My point is the title in journalism went from a summary of the story to a confusing false statement that might give you a hint of what the story is about.

This is what we get when nobody wants to pay for news anymore. The fact that news media had to turn to ad-funded models is the fault of everybody who refuses to pay for their news

The main issue here isn’t ads. The issue is straight up false titles.

I understand if they opted for vague summary. But false statement is where i draw the line.

And the reason why they have to resort to clickbait titles is to get people on their site for ad views

Clickbait and false statements are two different things.

If I write a title saying “Joe Biden resigned” and then talk about how most Americans wants Joe to resign this is considered a false statement.

But if I write “Americans wants only one thing” then this is a clickbait.

How do we know that it's receiving commands fine? I am assuming pinging Voyager 1 might take a while.

It takes 45 hours and that’s a good question.

Perhaps there are multiple distinct channels with one for command responses and another for scientific data?

It takes 20+ hours so since the announcement and now they could have send a command and gotten a response

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