The Voyager 2 probe, billions of kilometers from Earth, has been cut off from the outside world.
NASA revealed on Monday that it lost contact with the probe after it crashed The wrong order was sent to you last month.
The wrong command caused his antenna to rotate by two degrees relative to the Earth.And so, the probe that has been exploring the universe since 1977 Stop receiving and sending data.
But this Tuesday, they made it Heartbeat “heartbeat”giving them hope of reconnecting with Voyager 2.
Otherwise, NASA is confident communications will be restored when the probe restarts in October.
Where is Voyager 2 today?
Voyager 2 detectors currently exceed 19.9 billion kilometers from Earthtraveling through interstellar space at a speed of more than 55,000 km/h.
Since July 21, the probe has been unable to receive commands or send data to NASA’s Deep Space Network, a giant array of radio antennas scattered around the world, so the spacecraft cannot receive commands from ground controllers.
Yet the probe, which has been on the mission for nearly 46 years, still holds promise.
On Tuesday, NASA explain That Voyager 2 signal received During regular sky scans.
Earlier, the space agency reported that its giant antenna in the Australian capital Canberra was trying to detect any spurious signals From Voyager 2. It takes more than 18 hours for the signal to reach Earth from your location.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Voyager mission, said the Canberra antenna was also trying to bomb the area where Voyager 2 was on the right order in an attempt to get it in touch with the probe.
In addition to this, Voyager 2 plans to reset its orientation several times a year to keep its antenna pointing towards Earth. The next restart is scheduled for October 15thaccording to NASA, “should allow communications to be restored.”
In the meantime, NASA wants the probes, loaded with science instruments, to stay on their planned cosmic orbits.
Half a century of travel: What did the Voyager 2 probe achieve?
Voyager 2 and its twin Voyager 1 are the only space probes to operate outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields produced by the sun.
They reached interstellar space in 2018 and 2012, respectively.
These probes are designed to explore Jupiter and Saturn using the strange alignment of the outer planets that occurs approximately every 176 years.
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly past Neptune and Uranus.
and Voyager One almost now 24 billion kilometers away from the earth, it is the most distant spacecraft from human beings.
“As you may have heard… Voyager 2 will pause sending data until October. In the meantime, here I am, nearly 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and I’m fine! – Signature V1”, NASA wrote in Xthe network was formerly known as Twitter.
Remember, you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo.Download new versions of our apps and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.