NASA mistakenly severs communication to Voyager 2(theregister.com)

490 pointsby belter3 tahun yang lalu446 comments

NASA mistakenly severs communication to Voyager 2

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/31/nasa_mistakenly_disconnects_voyager_2/

446 comments

hutzlibu3 tahun yang lalu

In short, it was remote bricked, by giving it commands to rotate a bit. After successfully executing those commands - no further commands could be received, as now the antennas are not facing earth anymore.

But luckily it automatically readjust itself to earth automatically every half year exactly for these events. So on 15.10 we will know, if it is really lost. In either case, the end of its mission is near anyway, because the nuclear batteries are near its end.

edit: Nasa has a blog post on this https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/07/28/mission-update-voy...

Nifty39293 tahun yang lalu

I used to do remote work in firewalls quite often, and after locking myself out once or twice, I came up with a new habit: before making any changes I would schedule a reboot for 5min out which would revert any changes. That way if I locked myself out I could just wait for the reboot and get back in.

notyourwork3 tahun yang lalu

Every time I read about space engineering, I'm amazed by how contingencies have contingencies. It's so much careful planning and rigor compared to my world. I can always re-compile, re-deploy and regularly realize that my job is not life or death.

alex_suzuki3 tahun yang lalu

It’s so inspiring when you see how these things are just built to last.

quote: “In the past, engineers have compared keeping the probes operational to keeping an old car running. The tech is severely outdated, yet it keeps ticking over – a trend often seen in the spacecraft of past decades.”

At some point us humans will probably simply have forgotten how to maintain them.

beeforpork3 tahun yang lalu

It will probably readjust. And power supply is expected to be dead ca. 2025 anyway.

OK, OK, if the Klingons find it now, then it'd be a shame not to get some measurements. (The cameras, however, are off since decades.)

sho_hn3 tahun yang lalu

Dave from EEVBlog just visited a facility communicating with Voyager 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586Zn1ct-QA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvzgZt1Vug

There's a part 3 with a tour of the complex.

noughtnaut3 tahun yang lalu

> "the antenna on the spacecraft had been pointing two degrees away from the Earth [...] left it without the ability to receive commands or transmit data [...] NASA reckons the situation is temporary [...]"

I wonder how it's temporary. Does the probe have a re-targeting function? The answer is in the original statement:

> "Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct. 15, which should enable communication to resume. The mission team expects Voyager 2 to remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period."

albert_e3 tahun yang lalu

> it is programmed to recalibrate its position a few times a year. October 15 is the next scheduled reset.

Curious to know how this recalibration actually works. Any explainer that anyone can point to would be appreciated. Thanks!

moron4hire3 tahun yang lalu

At 32 billion kilometers distance, 2° off target means the communication beam is missing Earth by about 1.1 billion kilometers.

EDIT: This is about 7.4AU. If Jupiter and Saturn were in a line from Earth right now, this distance from Earth would be about the halfway point between the two gas giants. So no, we also won't be launching a rocket to go catch the beam just to re-establish comms.

padjo3 tahun yang lalu

Hope the re-calibration works. Would be a sad way to lose contact after all these years.

eimrine3 tahun yang lalu

> The probe is currently around 32 billion kilometers from Earth, and gets 15km further away every second.

I beg anybody to rephrase it understandingly with using some units similar to football fields. Is it possible to launch a little cheap rocket with a transmitter just to correct Voyager's position?

bradgessler3 tahun yang lalu

This will make for the ultimate "that time I brought down production" story for the engineers involved in this oversight.

qingcharles3 tahun yang lalu

Does NASA have any sort of emulator to test commands against before they run them on live?

I mean, we're all human, I've made some really shitty fatal errors hacking untested code onto production servers.

ChrisArchitect3 tahun yang lalu

Official blog post from a few days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36909736

inopinatus3 tahun yang lalu

That official statement seems incredibly light on detail, almost as if written for children, or worse, members of congress.

I wonder, is there a technical publication elsewhere that has more substantial coverage for interested people?

dcdc1233 tahun yang lalu

> which is currently almost 24 billion clicks away from Earth

It makes no sense to use that term in this article not to mention it is usually spelled klick.

danbruc3 tahun yang lalu

Just two degrees off? Can they not wiggle the antenna a bit around [1] just as in the old days when you had to hold the TV antenna a bit above the TV to see anything but noise?

[1] Joking aside, they obviously can not, Voyager is missing the Earth by 4.5 AE. How wide is the beam, how precisely do they have to aim the antenna to maintain communication?

StillBored3 tahun yang lalu

Wasn't there some conversation a few years back about how anyone with a big enough antenna could take the probe over because it doesn't really have any security measures and all the command/etc documentation is now public?

In a way this sounds like a way to keep that from happening.

waihtis3 tahun yang lalu

Would be very interested in any writeups on how NASA anticipates all the thousands of scenarios that can go wrong up-front and prepares for them. Sounds like there might be some useful thoughts there on how to write more resilient software

[deleted]3 tahun yang lalu

mark-r3 tahun yang lalu

"Voyager 2's trajectory is expected to remain unchanged" - I should hope so! There can't be any fuel left on board that would budge it, even if they wanted to.

utopcell3 tahun yang lalu

So, until Oct/15, some poor planet with intelligent life in our galaxy will be thinking that an alien civilization is trying to make contact.

Out_of_Characte3 tahun yang lalu

Does anyone know how Voyager calibrates their antennas?

5d41402abc4b3 tahun yang lalu

Are communications with voyager encrypted? Is it possible for someone to setup a big antenna in their backyard and take over the probe?

js23 tahun yang lalu

> The probe is currently around 32 billion kilometers from Earth

No it isn't. It's 20 billion kilometers. It's closer than Voyager 1.

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/

Aardwolf3 tahun yang lalu

Why aren't there more space ships like voyager 2, going outside the solar system but still providing some signal?

It's got to be possible to launch some in space now and have them go faster than voyager 2, so that the outside can be explored faster?

travisgriggs3 tahun yang lalu

"severs" huh. A bit clickbaity maybe? I think I'd gone with

"OOPS, NASA gave V2 the wrong number to phone home. Engineers of old have last laugh and reassure 'it's OK, V2 will sort it out'"

linsomniac3 tahun yang lalu

I'm surprised at this point that they don't have a "voyager simulator" akin to Kerbal Space Program, that they can try changes like this on before sending it to the real spacecraft...

noelrock3 tahun yang lalu

One thing that’s bothering me - the story text says it’s 32 bn kilometres from earth but looking it up it appears to be about 19 bn kilometres. Which is it?

starkparker3 tahun yang lalu

Jon Bois is probably livid and/or excited