The aging power-challenged Voyager 1 spacecraft suffered another glitch 2 weeks ago – it stopped calling home on its regular channel. Here is the sequence of events that transpired -
Oct 16 – Command sent to turn on a heater
Oct 18 – X-band signal lost; team surmised that the power-overload triggered the fault protection system and Voyager switched to a low-rate low-power X-band mode
Oct 18 – DSN looked for lower-rate X-band signal and found it
(contd)
https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/10/28/after-pause-nasas-voyager-1-communicating-with-mission-team/
#Voyager
1/n
Three weeks after Voyager 1 autonomously flipped over to using the S-band transmitter for communicating with earth because of a power overload condition, it appears that it is back to communicating using X-band.
No word from NASA, but presumably the team managed to turn off the heater that caused the power surge and re-enable the X-band transmitter.
Phew 😓
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
5/n
The Voyager spacecraft - takes a licking and keeps on ticking 💪
Voyager 1 seems to have made a full recovery from its recent power-surge caused illness. It is now communicating at the normal data rate of 160 bps using its X-band transmitter.
:mastodance:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/dsn-now/dsn.html
6/n
@AkaSci@fosstodon.org That great news! Having helpful neighbors can make all the difference 👽🛸 Thanks guys!
@AkaSci@fosstodon.org the little probe that could!❤️