While the Voyager 1 rocket keeps on returning science information and, in any case, is working as usual, the mission group is looking for the wellspring of a framework information issue.
The design group of NASA’s Voyager 1 rocket is attempting to tackle a secret: the interstellar pilgrim is working regularly, getting and executing orders from Earth, alongside social events and returning science information. Be that as it may, readouts from the test’s disposition explanation and control framework (AACS) don’t mirror what’s really happening locally.
The AACS controls the 45-year-old space apparatus’ direction. Among different undertakings, it keeps Voyager 1’s high-gain receiving wire pointed unequivocally at Earth, empowering it to send information home. All signs suggest the AACS is as yet working, yet the telemetry information it’s returning is invalid. For example, the information might seem, by all accounts, to be arbitrarily produced or mirror no conceivable expression of the AACS.
The issue hasn’t set off any installed shortcoming security frameworks, which are intended to place the space apparatus into “experimental mode” — a state where only fundamental activities are completed, giving designers time to analyze an issue. Explorer 1’s sign hasn’t debilitated either, which recommends the high-gain receiving wire stays in its endorsed direction with Earth.
The group will keep on observing the sign intently as they keep on deciding if the invalid information is coming straightforwardly from the AACS or from one more framework engaged with creating and sending telemetry information. Until the idea of the issue is better perceived, the group can’t guess whether this could influence how long the rocket can gather and send science information.
Explorer 1 is presently 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth, and it requires 20 hours and 33 minutes to travel that distance. That implies it requires approximately two days to make an impression on Voyager 1 and get a reaction — a delay the mission group is very much accustomed to.
“A secret like this is not all bad at this phase of the Voyager mission,” said Suzanne Dodd, project administrator for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The space apparatus are both just about 45 years of age, which is a long way past what the mission organizers expected. We’re likewise in interstellar space — a high-radiation climate that no shuttle has flown in previously. So there are a few major difficulties for the design group. In any case, I suppose, assuming there’s a method for settling this issue with the AACS, our group will track it down.
“At this stage of the Voyager mission, a mystery like this is sort of par for the course. Both spacecraft are nearly 45 years old, which is much older than the mission planners expected. We’re also in interstellar space, which is a high-radiation environment in which no spacecraft has ever traveled. As a result, the engineering team faces some significant obstacles. But I believe our team will find a method to resolve this issue with the AACS.”
Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
It’s conceivable the group may not track down the wellspring of the irregularity and will rather adjust to it, Dodd said. Assuming that they in all actuality do find the source, they might have the option to settle the issue through programming changes or possibly by utilizing one of the rocket’s repetitive equipment frameworks.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Voyager first group has depended on reinforcement equipment: In 2017, Voyager 1’s essential engines gave indications of corruption, so designs changed to one more arrangement of engines that had initially been utilized during the rocket’s planetary experiences. Those engines worked, notwithstanding having been unused for a very long time.
Explorer 1’s twin, Voyager 2 (at present 12.1 billion miles, or 19.5 billion kilometers, from Earth), keeps on working as usual.
The two Voyager spacecraft have been collecting data in interstellar space for far longer than mission organizers anticipated.The data they give from this area has helped drive a more profound understanding of the heliosphere, the diffuse obstruction the sun makes around the planets in our planetary group.
Every shuttle generates approximately 4 fewer watts of electrical power per year, limiting the number of frameworks the specialty can run.The mission design group has turned off different subsystems and radiators to hold power for science instruments and basic frameworks. No science instruments have been switched off yet because of the decreasing power, and the Voyager group is attempting to keep the two space apparatuses working and returning remarkable science past 2025.
While the architects keep on working to tackle the secret that Voyager 1 has introduced them to, the mission’s researchers will keep on taking full advantage of the information descending from the space apparatus’ interesting vantage point.
