As Voyager 1 Travels Into Interstellar Space, NASA Resolves Yet Another Issue

NASA scientists have successfully switched a thruster set on Voyager 1, a 47-year-old spacecraft, to maintain Earth’s position in interstellar space. 

The spacecraft, launched in 1977, had developed thruster issues, preventing it from staying pointed at Earth during its call home. 

To maintain its connection, NASA had to adapt the thruster set, considering the spacecraft’s age and potential damage from sudden changes.

The fuel tubes for their thrusters have been prone to clogging for more than 20 years

In a statement released on Tuesday, Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for Voyager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees the program, said “All the decisions we will have to make going forward are going to require a lot more analysis and caution than they once did,” 

For almost 20 years, their thrusters’ fuel tubes have been prone to clogging. Three thruster branches, two attitude branches for orientation, and one trajectory correction branch for space pathway modifications are all part of the Voyager’s architecture.

NASA officials reported that in 2002, the first attitude propulsion branch clogged, leading to the switch to the second branch. However, in 2018, the second branch also showed clogging, prompting the orientation maneuvers to switch to the trajectory correction branch.

The issue at hand was that, unlike the previous branches, even this one began to clog. The decision to return to the attitude propulsion system was made by JPL. But unlike in 2002, this time the task was more difficult because of the spacecraft’s significantly lower power.

Voyager 1 is currently operating on only necessary systems, with several of its heaters switched off. This meant that, due to reduced radiant heat, Voyager 1’s dormant attitude propulsion thruster branch was very cold and could cause damage if activated.

JPL engineers had an idea

JPL engineers successfully reoriented Voyager 1 towards Earth on August 27, after a six-year delay, by turning on one of the heaters for an hour. Additionally, a data transmission issue that had been affecting the spacecraft for months was resolved in June.

More than 47 years ago, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched into orbit to conduct research on the far-off solar system. By 1989, they had passed through the four largest outer planets in the solar system and were in interstellar space, which is inaccessible to particles or the force of the sun. Early in the 2010s, they departed from the solar system.

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