Voyager 2 has stopped receiving commands or sending data back to Earth- Reuters
Metropolis Desk-
Nasa has reported that after delivering the wrong command to its Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is billions of miles from Earth, it has lost touch.
Following a miscalculation, the spacecraft, which has been exploring the universe since 1977, turned its antenna last month so that it pointed two degrees away from Earth.
The probe has ceased to accept commands and provide data as a result. In October, when the probe is scheduled to reset, NASA expressed the expectation that communication will resume.
Voyager 2 is speeding through interstellar space, the area between the stars, at an estimated speed of 34,390 mph (55,346 km/h), more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion km) from Earth.
Since July 21, the probe has been unable to receive commands from ground controllers or transmit data to NASA’s Deep Space Network, a system of enormous radio antennae across the globe.
Despite the probe’s nearly 46-year mission, there is still hope for it.
The space agency announced on Monday that it was using a huge dish near Canberra, the capital of Australia, to search for any stray Voyager 2 signals. A signal traveling from that far away takes more than 18 hours to arrive on Earth.
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees the Voyager missions, the antenna will also repeatedly send the proper order into the vicinity of Voyager 2 in the hopes that it may make touch with the probe.
Otherwise, Voyager 2 is geared up to reset its orientation several times a year to keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. The following reset, which is scheduled on October 15th, “should enable communication to resume,” according to NASA.
Nasa anticipates that the spacecraft, which is equipped with scientific instruments, will continue on its intended course through space.
The only spacecraft to have ever operated outside the heliosphere—the shield of solar-generated particles and magnetic fields—are Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1. They arrived in interstellar space in 2018 and 2012, respectively.
To investigate Jupiter and Saturn, the probes were made to take advantage of a rare alignment of the outer planets that happens every 176 years.
Voyager 1 is now almost 15 billion miles away from Earth, making it humanity’s farthest distant spacecraft. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have ever flown by Neptune and Uranus.
Possibly, you heard… From now until October, Voyager 2 won’t be transmitting any data. I’m doing OK out here, about 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth, in the interim. Last week, Nasa posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “- V1”.
To tell extraterrestrials a story about our planet, every spacecraft carries a Golden Record comprising Earth sounds, images, and messages.
Source- BBC News
