Voyager 2 worked perfectly for 33 years but recently it started to send data scientist can't decode. What happened to the spacecraft on the edge of the Solar system?
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Engineers have shifted NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft into a mode that transmits only spacecraft health and status data while they diagnose an unexpected change in the pattern of returning data. Preliminary engineering data received on May 1 show the source of the issue is the flight data system, which is responsible for formatting the data to send back to Earth. The change in the data return pattern has prevented mission managers from decoding science data, and the cause of the sudden change in behaviour is still not known.
The first changes in the return of data packets from Voyager 2, which is near the edge of our solar system, appeared on April 22. After first confusion, mission team members have been working to troubleshoot and resume the regular flow of science data. Because of a planned roll maneuver and moratorium on sending commands, engineers got their first chance to send commands to the spacecraft on April 30. It takes nearly 13 hours for signals to reach the spacecraft and nearly 13 hours for signals to come down to NASA's Deep Space Network on Earth.
Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, about two weeks before its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1. The two spacecraft are the most distant human-made objects, out at the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble the sun creates around the solar system. Mission managers expect Voyager 1 to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space in the next five years or so, with Voyager 2 on track to enter interstellar space shortly afterward. Voyager 1 is in good health and performing normally.
The original goals for the two Voyager spacecraft were to explore Jupiter and Saturn in a a four-year journey. As part of a mission extension, Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, taking advantage of a once-in-176-year alignment to take a grand tour of the outer planets.
Among its many findings, Voyager 2 discovered Neptune's Great Dark Spot and 450-meter-per-second winds. It also detected geysers erupting from the pinkish-hued nitrogen ice that forms the polar cap of Neptune's moon Triton. Working in concert with Voyager 1, it also helped discover actively erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, and waves and kinks in Saturn's icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons. Voyager 2 is about 13.8 billion kilometers from Earth, and Voyager 1 is about 16.9 billion kilometers away from Earth. ■
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