{"id":7614,"date":"2023-08-02T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/nasas-voyager-2-sends-heartbeat-signal-to-earth-after-blackout\/%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%82%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%b5\/"},"modified":"2023-08-02T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T01:08:11","slug":"nasas-voyager-2-sends-heartbeat-signal-to-earth-after-blackout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/?p=7614","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Voyager 2 Sends Heartbeat Signal To Earth After Blackout"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"NASA's<\/div>\n

The Deep Space Network is NASA’s international array of giant radio antennas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Washington: <\/b><\/p>\n

NASA’s distant Voyager 2 probe has sent a “heartbeat” signal to Earth after mission control mistakenly cut contact, the US space agency said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets and serve as a beacon of humanity to the wider universe, it is currently more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from our planet — well beyond the solar system.<\/p>\n

A series of planned commands sent to Voyager 2 on July 21 “inadvertently caused the antenna to point two degrees away from Earth,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said in a recent update.<\/p>\n

This left it unable to transmit data or receive commands to its mission control — a situation that was not expected to be resolved until it conducted an automated re-orientation maneuver on October 15.<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd told AFP the team enlisted the help of the Deep Space Network — an international array of giant radio antennas, plus a few that orbit Earth — in a last-ditch effort to re-establish contact sooner.<\/p>\n

To their surprise, “this was successful in that we see the ‘heartbeat’ signal from the spacecraft,” she said. “So we know the spacecraft is alive and operating. This buoyed our spirits.”<\/p>\n

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Mission Update!<\/p>\n

The Deep Space Network has picked up a carrier signal from @NASAVoyager<\/a> 2, letting us know that the spacecraft is in good health. https:\/\/t.co\/yhNIpjtY12<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 31, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The team is “now generating a new command to attempt to point the spacecraft antenna toward Earth,” Dodd added, although she said there is only a “low probability” it will work.<\/p>\n

Still, given October 15 is a long way away, NASA will keep trying to send up these commands.<\/p>\n

Golden Record<\/p>\n

While JPL built and operates Voyager spacecraft, the missions are now part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory.<\/p>\n

Voyager 2 left the protective magnetic bubble provided by the Sun, called the heliosphere, in December 2018, and is currently traveling through the space between the stars.<\/p>\n

Before leaving our solar system, it explored Jupiter and Saturn, and became the first and so far only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.<\/p>\n

Voyager 1 was mankind’s first spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium, in 2012, and is currently almost 15 billion miles from Earth.<\/p>\n

Both Voyager spacecraft carry “Golden Records” — 12-inch, gold-plated copper disks intended to convey the story of our world to extraterrestrials.<\/p>\n

These include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium that serves as a radioactive clock allowing recipients to date the spaceship’s launch, and symbolic instructions that convey how to play the record.<\/p>\n

The contents of the record, selected for NASA by a committee chaired by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, include encoded images of life on Earth, as well as music and sounds that can be played using an included stylus.<\/p>\n

For now, the Voyagers continue to transmit back scientific data, though their power banks are expected to be eventually depleted, sometime after 2025.<\/p>\n

They will then continue to wander the Milky Way, potentially for eternity, in silence.<\/p>\n

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n

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