Contact Lost: NASA’s Accidental Disconnect with Voyager 2 Probe
NASA has inadvertently lost communication with its pioneering Voyager 2 spacecraft. The space agency stated that a sequence of planned commands were transmitted to the probe on July 21. Voyager 2 is no longer in communication with its engineers because its antenna is now pointing two degrees away from Earth. It cannot receive commands or transmit data, according to NASA.
Typically, it would do so by establishing contact with the Deep Space Network, or DSN, a set of ground-based antennas that enables communication with distant spacecraft. However, Voyager 2’s transmissions are not reaching this network. Voyager 2 is currently independent, approximately 20 billion kilometers from Earth.
NASA still expects to reestablish communication with the spacecraft. It is set up to periodically recalibrate its orientation in order to return its antenna to Earth. The next reset is anticipated to occur on October 15, according to Nasa. The space agency anticipates that the probe will remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period until then.
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Voyager 2: The Only Human-Made Craft to Visit Uranus, Neptune, and Enter Interstellar Space
As its name suggests, Voyager 2 was the second of two spacecraft launched in 1977. Voyager 1 is now 24 billion kilometers from Earth, and NASA reports that it is continuing to operate normally. The Voyager program carried a multitude of records with it: Voyager 2 is the only human-made spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune, and the only human-made spacecraft to have ever entered interstellar space.
Even nearly half a century after their launch, the pair of Voyager spacecraft have continued to transmit valuable and vital data to NASA for analysis by scientists on Earth. They have contributed to a multitude of new discoveries regarding the farthest reaches of our solar system.
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Source: Independent, Mirror
