329
submitted 1 year ago by igalmarino@lemmy.ml to c/science@lemmy.ml
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[-] Ton@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

This is so awesome, I cannot phantom a piece of tech that has stayed working for half a century. Imagine using a TV from 1977, let alone a flying computer powered by a nuclear battery.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago

And it was originally just supposed to go for five years

[-] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

"we uhh we meant to go through the heliopause! Yeah"

[-] Stabbywithsocks1@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I thought it was called the heliosphere.

[-] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Basically the same thing. Just different parts of it.

[-] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

I cannot phantom a piece of tech

I'm just happy it hasn't ghosted us

[-] blivet@artemis.camp 3 points 1 year ago

I read that sometime in 2025 it’s likely the Voyagers’ nuclear batteries won’t have enough power left to operate their instruments.

It will be kind of weird not to get occasional updates anymore. I graduated high school in 1977, and I’ve been hearing news about the Voyager probes for my entire adult life.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 32 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


NASA lost contact with its Voyager 2 spacecraft—the second-most distant object ever built by humans and flung into space—nearly two weeks ago due to an errant command sent to the probe.

The mission's scientists believed they had several options to restore communications with the half-century-old probe.

NASA's Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, was able to send a "shout" command to Voyager instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself into a proper position to facilitate communication with Earth.

Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, at 12:29 am ET, Voyager 2 started streaming back science and telemetry data.

Prior to the launch of Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977 on two different rockets, humans had been gazing at fuzzy blobs in the outer Solar System for hundreds of years.

The Voyagers uncovered complex planetary systems and incredible moons, such as volcano-covered Io, icy Europa, and Titan, with its methane seas.


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[-] twhite@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Echoing Ton,

Wow this is so exciting!

For the controls team to suggest they have "multiple options" to re-establish comms on a satellite launched in the 70s that is appx. 133AU from earth is truly astounding.

And of those options that a "shout" worked is so neat.

Makes me giddy to think about satellites launched recently and in the near future and how well they may fair in comparison.

[-] csfirecracker@lemmyf.uk 18 points 1 year ago

I'm so pleased about this. With all the bleak news lately it's brightened my day

[-] HeneryHawk@thelemmy.club 13 points 1 year ago

Hello, fellow kids

[-] jerome@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

good. I hope it's eating well and has change for laundry.

[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

I once had that with windows update

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Of course it is. It's pretty far from the sun at this point. Hopefully the RTG is keeping it warm...

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
329 points (99.7% liked)

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