Voyager 2

What a bummer.

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Oh man… Put that on your resumé…! :expressionless:

Well they believe they’ll get it back in a few months, so fingers crossed.

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Do You Really Think So Season 5 GIF by The Big Bang Theory

My understanding is that if the Voyager spacecraft doesn’t receive commands by sometime in October, it will attempt to re-orient back to the old location, and maybe try a few variations. Hopefully we get contact back.

I am curious if the command/data was entered incorrectly or calculated incorrectly. They usually triple check all of those.

It probably says this all in the article :slight_smile:

My source: NASA temporarily loses contact with one of its most distant spacecraft | Ars Technica

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From article I posted:
Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth. The next reset is due on 15 October, which Nasa says “should enable communication to resume”.

I’ve just seen a BBC news article saying they have picked it up again on a regular sweep:

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I am just gobsmacked that they can still pull a signal out of all the background noise!

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Ha - ain’t that the truth! I had to give up my up to then lifetime hobby of amateur radio in the late noughties due to incessant EMC even with specialist filtering gear.

Still haven’t given up - and still have all my kit locked away safe in a cupboard. Problem is, I’ll probably be long gone by the time the atmosphere is clean enough to hear anything again!

Mind you, I s’pect NASA have their antennas way outside the planet’s atmosphere and use rebros to get the signal to the surface. Lucky beggars.

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It is actually done by their deep space tracking network with stations at Tidbinbilla (just outside Canberra - and worth a visit if you are ever in town), California and Spain (IIRC?)

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Yes, while it would be helpful to have links in orbit they actually don’t.

Contact renewed!

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Glad it did not take until October to regain contact.

Wheels

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