Voyager 1 is alive: NASA spacecraft reawakens 15 billion miles away from Earth

Voyager 1 has been venturing deep into the interstellar space. But recently, this aging spacecraft encountered a silent challenge.

After a brief silence, the distant spacecraft reached out to Earth again on October 24.

On October 16th, Voyager 1's fault protection system kicked in, a safety measure designed to preserve the spacecraft's limited power. This unexpected action caused a disruption in communication, leaving the mission team uncertain about its status.

As per NASA, one of the spacecraft's radio transmitters has malfunctioned, and engineers are investigating the cause. The transmitter was automatically disabled by the spacecraft's fault protection system.

The spacecraft's automated system protects itself by shutting down unnecessary systems.

Unexpected shutdown

The flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sprang into action, analyzing the telemetry data and devising a strategy to restore communication.

The flight team transmits command sequences to Voyager 1 through the Deep Space Network and analyzes the spacecraft's response.

This round-trip communication takes nearly two days. A single signal travels 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, taking nearly 23 hours to reach Voyager 1 and another 23 hours to return.

On October 16, a routine command led to an unexpected shutdown of the spacecraft's systems. It was to activate one of the spacecraft’s heaters.

“While Voyager 1 should have had ample power to operate the heater, the command triggered the fault protection system. The team learned of the issue when the Deep Space Network couldn’t detect Voyager 1’s signal on October 18,” the NASA blog noted.

The spacecraft usually communicates with Earth via its X-band radio transmitter.

The fault protection system reduced the data transmission rate of the X-band transmitter to conserve power. This change in data rate altered the specific X-band signal that the Deep Space Network was tuned to receive, making it difficult to detect Voyager 1's signal.

“Engineers found the signal later that day, and Voyager 1 otherwise seemed to be in a stable state as the team began to investigate what had happened,” it added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ_7--P1EMg

Activation of S band in Voyager 1

However, the problem didn’t stop there. Voyager 1 fell silent again on October 19.

The flight team believed that the spacecraft's fault protection system activated twice more, disabling the X-band transmitter altogether.

A crucial decision was made: to switch to the S-band transmitter, a backup system that hadn't been used in over four decades.

This S-band transmitter operates on less power and emits a significantly weaker signal.

Despite the challenges posed by the distance and the weaker signal, the Deep Space Network successfully detected the S-band signal.

The primary focus now is on gathering crucial data to diagnose the root cause of the fault protection system activation and restore Voyager 1 to its normal operating mode.

Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft exploring interstellar space. The increasing age of the spacecraft is leading to a higher rate of component failures and anomalies.

It should be noted that Voyager 1 has encountered communication issues several times this year alone.