NASA loses contact with Voyager 2

[Gargamel]

Oh noes

Voyager 2: Nasa loses contact with probe after sending wrong command https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-66371569

whoops.     Well hopefully it fixes itself as expected in October. 

[Beccab]

 

[Kerbart]

So, how did they get it fixed now instead of waiting for the reset in October?

[Gargamel]

22 minutes ago, Beccab said:

 

That link, and the NASA source it quotes doesn’t say anything about the DSN picking up a signal, just the opposite.  

-edit-  This tweet does say that though:

 

18 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

So, how did they get it fixed now instead of waiting for the reset in October?

They didn’t fix it, they can just hear noise from its transmissions, it can’t actually communicate in either direction.  

Edited August 1, 2023 by Gargamel
Added edit to show merged posts.

[Kerbart]

Aaaaah, we can hear it, but it can't hear us? Something like that? And the signal we're picking up is just that, "a" signal, not specific instrument data (which I assume it would only sent when asked for, and as we're "not asking...")

[Minmus Taster]

Waiting with baited breath for October!

[Gargamel]

23 hours ago, Kerbart said:

Aaaaah, we can hear it, but it can't hear us? Something like that? And the signal we're picking up is just that, "a" signal, not specific instrument data (which I assume it would only sent when asked for, and as we're "not asking...")

I think it’s just the signal, without being able to know what it is.    Like hearing somebody talking across the room but not being able to make out what they are saying.   

[tater]

Any news on how someone inadvertently sends commands to Voyager, and why they still have a job (if they do)?

[adsii1970]

32 minutes ago, tater said:

Any news on how someone inadvertently sends commands to Voyager, and why they still have a job (if they do)?

Mistakes happen.

It could have been something as simple as a line of code to be sent at some time. That one line of code had not been wholly proofed and debugged yet was placed in the upload by mistake by some miscommunication.

[tater]

16 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Mistakes happen.

It could have been something as simple as a line of code to be sent at some time. That one line of code had not been wholly proofed and debugged yet was placed in the upload by mistake by some miscommunication.

The backup is that it resets and points home periodically, but it's amazing to me that they don't have a simulator to test any uploads to the spacecraft (or that it's a poor enough simulation that it isn't reliable).

[adsii1970]

13 minutes ago, tater said:

The backup is that it resets and points home periodically, but it's amazing to me that they don't have a simulator to test any uploads to the spacecraft (or that it's a poor enough simulation that it isn't reliable).

Remember, Voyager I and II are operating beyond their planned lifespans. The fact we are getting anything from them at all is remarkable.

And to think, if NASA could be called about extending the manufacturer's warranty...

[tater]

13 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Remember, Voyager I and II are operating beyond their planned lifespans. The fact we are getting anything from them at all is remarkable.

Obviously.

The continued program has consistently cost ~$4.5M-$6M per year for a long time now (under Heliophysics). So while a small budget, they have people getting paid to do this work.

[steve9728]

Emmm... sorry, when are they "supposed" to be lost signal forever? Around 2025~2030?

[Royalswissarmyknife]

14 minutes ago, steve9728 said:

Emmm... sorry, when are they "supposed" to be lost signal forever? Around 2025~2030?

When we land people on mars.

[tater]

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by tater

[PakledHostage]

I'd love to know what that "quick thinking and collaboration" was? Maybe they bounced a message off some mission that's in a more favorable position?

[StrandedonEarth]

44 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

I'd love to know what that "quick thinking and collaboration" was? Maybe they bounced a message off some mission that's in a more favorable position?

Oh, they probably just used the DSN to blast out a much more powerful signal than usual, strong enough for Vger to detect. Meanwhile, in about fifty thousand years an alien civilization will pick up a mysterious signal that, when finally decoded, will amount to “Turn left!”

[kerbiloid]

An old Voyager signal had reached the sky dome, reflected, and returned back.

Several decades later they will receive it again, reflected by the opposite side of the dome.

P.S.
And no, it doesn't mean that the dome is 50 l.y. away.
Just the light gets slower where the Voyager is flying.

[Shpaget]

Quote

"The Deep Space Network used the highest-power transmitter to send the command (the 100-kw S-band uplink from the Canberra site) and timed it to be sent during the best conditions during the antenna tracking pass in order to maximize possible receipt of the command by the spacecraft," Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd told AFP.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasa-restablishes-full-contact-with-voyager-2-after-interstellar-shout-4271069

37 hours of waiting to see if Vger received the message.

[Scotius]

Good news. I'm glad to hear Voyager is not lost yet.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Back online 

Quote

Voyager 2: Nasa fully back in contact with lost space probe

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66408851

I can't help but think that we owe the Voyagers' robustness to the era of construction.  I still see 70s cars on the road.  80s?  Not so much. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[kerbiloid]

All this Voyager is, of course, nice.
But the most important question is still remaining unclear.

Can the aliens, capturing Voyager, hack or send a trojan to the NASA computer, and open a backdoor at the humanity backdoor?

It dsappeared, then reappeared. Who knows, where it was, and what it was doing in between.

[Shpaget]

Technically, we kept on receiving the carrier signal, so maybe no hijack.

Rewatching the ST:TMP, just in case.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

23 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Who knows, where it was, and what it was doing in between

Spock already answered this.  

[kerbiloid]

Spock is himself an alien being (or do you mean the sci-fi character, rather than the doctor)?

Should we blindly trust him?