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1. AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 20:42:33 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

   The aging power-challenged Voyager 1 spacecraft suffered another glitch 2 weeks ago – it stopped calling home on its regular channel. Here is the sequence of events that transpired -

   Oct 16 – Command sent to turn on a heater
   Oct 18 – X-band signal lost; team surmised that the power-overload triggered the fault protection system and Voyager switched to a low-rate low-power X-band mode
   Oct 18 – DSN looked for lower-rate X-band signal and found it
   (contd)

   https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/10/28/after-pause-nasas-voyager-1-communicating-with-mission-team/
   #Voyager
   1/n

   • AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 20:42:32 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Let's take a moment to marvel at the design of the Voyager spacecraft software - written in assembly language for a custom 1970s CPU, in less than 70 KB of RAM, able to react to failures and keep comms. up.

     Possibly, NASA may have to turn off one more instrument on Voyager 1. Over the 47 years since launch, Voyager instruments have gradually been shut off as power levels have declined by over 50%.

     But the Voyagers continue to boldly go where no spacecraft has gone before.
     4/n

     Ricardo repeated this.
   • AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 20:42:32 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Three weeks after Voyager 1 autonomously flipped over to using the S-band transmitter for communicating with earth because of a power overload condition, it appears that it is back to communicating using X-band.

     No word from NASA, but presumably the team managed to turn off the heater that caused the power surge and re-enable the X-band transmitter.

     Phew 😓

     https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
     5/n

     Ricardo repeated this.
   • AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 20:42:33 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Voyager 1 sequence of events contd -

     Oct 19 – Signal lost again; team suspected that Voyager fault protection system was triggered twice more and may have switched to a lower power S-band mode, not used since 1981
     Oct 19 – 3 antennas at DSN Canberra in array mode detected the faint S-band signal
     Oct 22 – Signal sent to validate S-band transmission
     Now analyzing data to diagnose and fix the problem and return to X-band mode.

     2/n

   • AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 09-Nov-2024 20:42:33 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) 70m antenna 63 in Madrid is currently receiving the S-band signal from Voyager 1.

     https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
     3/n

   • AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Nov-2024 08:30:03 UTC AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     The Voyager spacecraft - takes a licking and keeps on ticking 💪

     Voyager 1 seems to have made a full recovery from its recent power-surge caused illness. It is now communicating at it normal data rate of 160 bps using its X-band transmitter.

     :mastodance:

     https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
     6/n