NASA's Voyager 2 has lost communication with Earth due to an unintentional shift in its antenna direction. The next programmed orientation adjustment on October 15 is expected to restore communication, while Voyager 1 continues to operate as usual. A series of scheduled commands directed at NASA’

NASA’s Voyager 2 has lost communication with Earth due to an unintentional shift in its antenna direction. The next programmed orientation adjustment on October 15 is expected to restore communication, while Voyager 1 continues to operate as usual.

A series of scheduled commands directed at NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 led to an unintentional change in antenna direction. Consequently, the antenna moved 2 degrees off course from Earth, causing the spacecraft to lose its ability to receive commands or transmit data back to our planet.

  • zalack
    13•11 months ago

    Precision for what? Knowing their cron job will fire? Knowing what was wrong with the commands they sent? Neither of those are crazy precise or ambiguous statements?

    The only highly precise thing that needs to happen is the alignment of the antenna but that system has been working for decades already and has been thoroughly tested.

    NASA tends to be pretty straightforward when talking about risks, and if they feel like all the systems are in working order and there’s a good chance we’ll be back in contact with it, I think it’s worth talking them at their word.

    Like yeah, it’s impressive they can aim an antenna that precisely, but using stars to orient an object is a very very well understood geometry problem. NASA has been using that technique at least as far back as Apollo

    • Cosmic ClericEnglish
      1•11 months ago

      The only highly precise thing that needs to happen is the alignment of the antenna but that system has been working for decades already and has been thoroughly tested.

      When was the last time the maneuvering jets were fired off? Especially so in the crafts current condition of it being in a very low power mode? They may know the craft and its design well but they’re not there seeing the craft in its current condition to know if things will work as they would want them to.

      There’s a million things that can go wrong that they’re not aware of, his original comment is actually correct and not worthy the attack it’s getting. There’s always the unknown when you’re working with hardware and software, especially in deep space.

      • @bobs_monkey@lemm.eeEnglish
        2•11 months ago

        I think if there’s anyone that knows anything about telemetry, it’s NASA. These machines have been engineered for these scenarios for decades by some of the most unfathomably brilliant minds that have straight dedicate their lives to this. The science of this has been confirmed by similarly brilliant minds the world over.