Latest news with #DeepSpaceNetwork
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Revives Voyager 1's Dead Thrusters After 21 Years — Here's How
NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are now traveling through interstellar space at ... More around 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). This artist's concept depicts one of the probes speeding away. NASA engineers have put backup thrusters not used since 2004 back into service on its aging Voyager 1 spacecraft — from almost 16 billion miles away. The farthest human-made object, Voyager 1, was launched in 1977 and travels at 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). It uses thrusters to keep itself oriented, pivoting so its antenna is pointed at Earth for communications to be sent and received. However, on its nearly five-decade-long journey through space, hardware has degraded to the extent that the entire mission hinges on engineers being creative. This is just the latest example of NASA trying to extend the lifetime of arguably the most famous spacecraft humanity has ever built — but can it reach its 50th birthday in 2027? According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft's primary roll thrusters, which control the spacecraft's rotation, haven't been used since 2004 when their internal heaters failed. For the last 21 years, backup roll thrusters have been used. However, these are now degrading. So engineers went back to failed internal heaters and, just in case, attempted to revive a power switch that may been at fault 21 years ago. Despite the radio signal taking over 23 hours to travel from Earth to the spacecraft, the fix — a sequence of commands — worked from 16 billion miles away. 'It was such a glorious moment,' said Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL. 'These thrusters were considered dead. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.' The thruster swap had to be performed in double-quick time because, on May 4, 2025, the only facility powerful enough to send commands to Voyager 1 went down for maintenance. The 230-foot-wide (70-meter-wide) antenna Deep Space Station 43 antenna in Canberra, Australia — part of NASA's Deep Space Network — will be out of action through February 2026. The restoration of its primary roll thrusters means Voyager 1 can transmit data back to Earth while DSS-43 is down. The Deep Space Network is how engineers communicate with and receive data from the space agency's 30+ robotic probes in the solar system and beyond. There are three complexes in the network, in California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia — each placed 120° from each other. California's antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California, was upgraded in 2020 to enable it to handle ultra-fast 'space broadband.' Antenna upgrades are essential for, among other things, NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon and beyond. Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space in the constellation Ophiuchus, in the southern sky beneath the Summer Triangle stars, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Is Officially Lost in Space -- but Maybe Not Forever
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission is in jeopardy. It launched on Feb. 27 to send a probe to the moon in search of water. But less than a week after launch, NASA lost track of the spacecraft, which may compromise the mission if NASA can't reestablish contact. The Lunar Trailblazer mission is part of NASA's SIMPLEx program, which funds low-cost, high-reward missions using smaller spacecraft. These low-cost probes are often included in the launch of larger missions, much like a carpool -- this one launched along with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Florida. Read more: Intuitive Machines Aims for Moon Landing on Thursday Communications in space are a little more complex than they are here on Earth, but the general principles are the same. In short, a transmitter from the object in space sends data that is captured by a receiver on Earth and vice versa. However, performing these actions requires power, and things can get dicey when the power goes out. That's pretty much what happened with the Lunar Trailblazer. NASA reports that telemetry from the Lunar Trailblazer showed that it had begun a slow spin. This spin, NASA believes, caused the solar panels to orient themselves away from the sun, causing the satellite to revert to a low-power state. "The Lunar Trailblazer team has been working around the clock to re-establish communications with the spacecraft," said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. "NASA sends up high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to do incredible science at a lower cost, and the team truly encapsulates the NASA innovative spirit -- if anyone can bring Lunar Trailblazer back, it is them." For now, NASA says the best chance it has at salvaging the Lunar Trailblazer is for it to continue spinning until it reorients itself so that the solar panels get more juice from the sun. It is also working with NASA's Deep Space Network and ground-based observatories to gather data on the lost satellite. The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is to spend six months floating to the moon, where it'll take high-resolution photos of the entire surface. The purpose of this excursion is to find water Should NASA reestablish the connection, the mission can still be saved. The connection was lost before the Lunar Traiblazer could perform the various small thruster operations necessary to reach its proper orbit to take off from Earth and fly to the moon. However, the longer the satellite remains unreachable, the more difficult it will be to complete the objective. "The team is now working to define alternative TCM (trajectory correction maneuvers) strategies that could be used after reacquiring communications and establishing normal spacecraft functionality," NASA said in a blog post. "These alternative TCM strategies may be able to place Lunar Trailblazer in lunar orbit and allow it to complete some of its science objectives." The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is meant to be a low-cost, high-reward endeavor to photograph any water on the moon's surface to better ascertain how much is there and what forms it takes. Should NASA reconnect with it and the new TCM strategies are successful, the satellite will still take about six months to reach our nearest celestial neighbor to begin taking measurements. Connection issues with objects in space are nothing new for NASA or any other space agency. Late last year, NASA had to activate a radio that Voyager 1 hadn't used in 40 years to reestablish contact with the ancient satellite. During a NASA-hosted livestream on Twitch, connection to the International Space Station was lost while astronaut Don Pettit was in mid-sentence. Sometimes, connection losses are expected. For example, the Blue Ghost mission stuck its moon landing earlier this week, and that mission will end once the equipment loses its solar power and the connection is lost. In short, connection issues are an annoying but not infrequent issue with space objects.
