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  • NASA hits the wrong button, cuts of comm with Voyager 2.

    From RichA@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jul 31 19:30:40 2023
    https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-voyager-spacecraft-wrong-contact.html

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  • From StarDust@21:1/5 to RichA on Mon Jul 31 21:52:31 2023
    On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 7:30:42 PM UTC-7, RichA wrote:
    https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-voyager-spacecraft-wrong-contact.html

    Oh sure!
    Voyager is dying, NASA just don't to admit it!

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  • From Martin Brown@21:1/5 to StarDust on Tue Aug 1 09:36:46 2023
    On 01/08/2023 05:52, StarDust wrote:
    On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 7:30:42 PM UTC-7, RichA wrote:
    https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-voyager-spacecraft-wrong-contact.html

    Oh sure!
    Voyager is dying, NASA just don't to admit it!

    With any luck it will system reset in October and re-align itself to
    Earth automatically. It is a heck of a long way away now!

    It is a bit sloppy to send a bad pointing command though - such things
    are usually carefully simulated and sanity checked before transmission.
    Luckily there is a fail safe recovery mode but they don't like to rely
    on that.

    The Voyagers have way exceeded their design lifetime - the only reason
    that we can still communicate with them now is that Earth based
    receivers have become a lot more sensitive since the late 1970's. Can't
    do anything about the transmit power at the far end - it is what it is,
    but they have seriously upgraded the preamps on the big dishes.

    --
    Martin Brown

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  • From RichA@21:1/5 to Martin Brown on Tue Aug 1 19:35:43 2023
    On Tuesday, 1 August 2023 at 04:36:51 UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:
    On 01/08/2023 05:52, StarDust wrote:
    On Monday, July 31, 2023 at 7:30:42 PM UTC-7, RichA wrote:
    https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-voyager-spacecraft-wrong-contact.html

    Oh sure!
    Voyager is dying, NASA just don't to admit it!
    With any luck it will system reset in October and re-align itself to
    Earth automatically. It is a heck of a long way away now!

    It is a bit sloppy to send a bad pointing command though - such things
    are usually carefully simulated and sanity checked before transmission. Luckily there is a fail safe recovery mode but they don't like to rely
    on that.

    The Voyagers have way exceeded their design lifetime - the only reason
    that we can still communicate with them now is that Earth based
    receivers have become a lot more sensitive since the late 1970's. Can't
    do anything about the transmit power at the far end - it is what it is,
    but they have seriously upgraded the preamps on the big dishes.

    --
    Martin Brown

    Thankfully, not everyone celebrates that by issuing a wrong command. In any case, they picked up a signature signal from it, hopefully it does re-orientate itself.
    I do not know if using an omni-directional antenna (then or now) would have allowed communication with something that far-out.

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