On July 21, NASA lost contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is currently about 20 billion kilometers away from Earth. However, NASA operators have recently regained communication with the spacecraft, although they are still facing difficulties in establishing full contact.
Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 and has been journeying towards the outer edges of the solar system and into interstellar space. It is now the second-most distant spacecraft from Earth, with its sister craft, Voyager 1, being nearly 24 billion kilometers away. Despite being launched over 46 years ago, Voyager 2’s scientific instruments, including its magnetometer and cosmic ray detector, are still operational and transmitting data back to Earth.
The communication breakdown occurred when a series of commands from mission control inadvertently shifted the spacecraft’s orientation, pointing its antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, the signals from the spacecraft were not reaching the ground-based satellite dishes, preventing operators from sending any commands to correct its position.
However, on July 31, NASA detected a faint carrier signal from Voyager 2, indicating that the spacecraft is still alive and functional. Although the signal was not strong enough to extract real-time data, it provided assurance that the spacecraft is operational.
Suzanne Dodd, the manager of the Voyager project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, confirmed that the spacecraft is still operating. While the unexpected detection of the carrier signal was a positive development, there is a challenge in sending commands to Voyager 2 while its antenna is not properly aligned towards Earth. NASA is currently developing a new command to attempt to redirect the spacecraft’s antenna, although the success rate is uncertain.
In the event that the new command fails, Voyager 2 is programmed to automatically reset its orientation a few times a year, including on October 15. Communication is expected to resume during the next automatic reset. In the meantime, NASA’s operators will continue their efforts to reorient the spacecraft and monitor the heartbeat signal.
