Voyager 1, the farthest manmade object from the Earth, recently began sending back data signals from its scientific instruments, NASA has confirmed. Voyager 1 had stopped sending back relevant data in November 2023, owing to some glitches in its flight data subsystem (FDS), and fixing it was tough as engineers had to wait 45 hours to hear anything. In April this year, NASA got it to start sending back health and status data, followed by scientific information from two of its instruments in May.
Now, NASA is once again receiving its readings on plasma waves, magnetic fields, and space particles. Voyager 1 has been sailing the cosmos for over 46 years. The space probe was launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager programme to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the heliosphere. It was launched 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. Voyager 1 was intended to explore the Jovian and Saturnian (related to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively) systems, discovering new moons, active volcanoes and a trove of data about the outer Solar System. Accordingly, the probe made flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and the latter’s largest moon, Titan.
The probe studied the weather, magnetic fields, and rings of the two gas giants, and was the first probe to provide detailed images of their moons. In 1989, both Voyagers flew beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, but neither flew by Pluto, which was elsewhere in its orbit at the time.At present, Voyager 1 is currently cruising at 61,500 kmph, at least 24.14 billion km away from Earth, in the Ophiucus constellation.
Four decades and stronger
Voyager 1 is a triumph of engineering. It was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and has 16 hydrazine thrusters, three-axis stabilisation gyroscopes, and referencing instruments to keep the probe’s radio antenna pointed toward Earth. Collectively, these instruments are part of the attitude and articulation control subsystem (AACS), along with redundant units of most instruments and eight backup thrusters.
The spacecraft also included 11 scientific instruments to study celestial objects as it travels through space. All its instruments and their working are guided by the computer command system (CCS). Its radio communication system was designed to be used beyond the limits of the Solar System. Its 3.7-metre diameter high-gain Cassegrain antenna sends and receives radio waves through three of NASA’s Deep Space Network stations on Earth.
As of 2023, signals from Voyager 1 take over 22 hours to reach Earth. In all, the spacecraft weighs 773 kg. Voyager 1 is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted on a boom. The RTGs generated about 470 W of electrical power at the time of launch, with the remainder being dissipated as waste heat. The power output of the RTGs declines over time, but would continue to support operations until at least 2025, with the probe’s maximum lifespan expected to extend to 2030.