delegacy operator have been unable to send radio transmission to the Voyager 2 space probe since mid - March , but a late mental testing of newly installed ironware is a good foretoken that upgrades to NASA ’s Deep Space internet are go as planned .
NASA sent a command to Voyager 2 on October 29 , something it had n’t been able-bodied to do for seven calendar month , allot to an agencystatement . Mission operator did so using Deep Space Station 43 ( DDS43)—the only tuner transmitting aerial capable of communicating with the spacecraft . launch in 1977 , Voyager 2 is presently 11,677 million miles ( 18,792 million kilometre ) from Earth . It and its partner Voyager 1 are the most aloof human - made objects in the macrocosm .
The radio aerial has been offline due to much - needed stamping ground and upgrades . The successful re - connect was n’t supposed tohappenfor another three months , but the early trial run of newly instal hardware , in which Voyager 2 take back a “ hello ” sign as commanded , is good news , as the facility is anticipate to go back online in February 2021 .
Repair crews working on Deep Space Station 43 in Australia.Image: CSIRO
NASA could n’t mouth to Voyager 2 during the seven - month break , but the investigation was beaming back health update and important science information . The probe is presently traveling through the heliosphere at 34,275 miles per hour ( 55,160 kilometer / h ) , where it ’s exploring this expansive , house of cards - same region of the extinct solar organisation .
The Deep Space web is a appeal of radio antennas located around the world , and its elementary function is to put across with spacecraft farther away than the Moon . Located in Canberra , Australia , DDS43 is an signification cog in this organisation , but , at 48 age older , it was painfully in need of of a refresh . The 111 - foot - all-inclusive ( 34 - meter ) radio antenna has gone through upgrades before , but this represents the long time it has been offline in over 30 years .
“ The DSS43 antenna is a highly specialised system ; there are only two other similar antennas in the world , so have the antenna down for one twelvemonth is not an ideal billet for Voyager or for many other NASA missionary station , ” Philip Baldwin , operation coach for NASA ’s Space Communications and Navigation ( SCaN ) programme , said in the program line . “ The office made the decision to conduct these rise to ensure that the antenna can continue to be used for current and future missions . For an feeler that is almost 50 years old , it ’s better to be proactive than reactive with critical maintenance . ”
Conceptual image of Voyager 2.Image: NASA
These repairs and upgrades will bear witness beneficial to other missions , include Mars Perseverance ( presently en route to the Red Planet ) and the upcoming Artemis missions to the lunar aerofoil , not to mention future trip to Mars involving humans .
That only one radio beauty on Earth can communicate with Voyager 2 may sound surprising , but there ’s a very skillful grounds for this . For the investigation to make a flyby of Neptune ’s moon Triton in 1989 , foreign mission operators had to send the probe over the frappe giant ’s north perch . This trajectory required the investigation to jaunt in a southern instruction relative to the mat orbital plane , and it ’s been moving in this direction ever since . The result of this maneuver is that Voyager 2 has now trip so far to the south of the planetary airplane that it ca n’t be reached by radio antennas on Earth ’s Northern Hemisphere . The probe ’s sibling , Voyager 1 , can still be reached by a distich of dishes in the Northern Hemisphere , as the probe took a dissimilar path , past Saturn .
Voyager 2 Team Releases First Scientific Data on Interstellar Space
DSS43 is also the only dish in the Southern Hemisphere with a transmitter powerful enough to reach Voyager 2 , while also being capable of utter the right language ; uplinks to Voyager 2 must be transmitted in the S - band , while downlinks must be receive in the X - band .
Two - way communication with Voyager 2 has been restored , as this machine keeps on keeping on . But , imagine that : No contact with Earth for month and month at a time . voice dead lackadaisical .
HeliosphereNASAScienceVoyager 2
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