Voyager 1’s Communication Glitch Prompts Switch to S-Band Signal

 

Voyager 1’s Communication Glitch Prompts Switch to S-Band Signal

When we hear about issues with the Voyager spacecraft, it’s hard not to anticipate the worst for these pioneering interstellar probes. Luckily, today isn’t the day to say goodbye to Voyager 1, although the spacecraft did encounter another challenge affecting its ability to communicate with Earth.

The problem began on October 16, when NASA controllers sent a command to Voyager 1—currently almost a light-day away—to power on one of its heaters. Nearly two days later, on October 18, Voyager 1 did not respond as expected. The controllers detected the spacecraft’s X-band signal, but it was transmitting at a much weaker power level than usual. This low power suggested that the probe had entered fault protection mode, likely triggered by the heating command. By the next day, Voyager 1 stopped transmitting on the X-band altogether, with the onboard system switching to the lower-power S-band frequency as a precautionary fallback.

While this switch was concerning, it wasn’t entirely unprecedented; however, the S-band transmitter had not been used since 1981, back when Voyager was still within the solar system. Given the immense distance, there was concern that the Deep Space Network (DSN) might not be able to detect the faint S-band signal. But, on October 22, NASA’s DSN successfully located the signal, allowing mission control to establish basic communication, receive engineering data, and send commands. Now, engineers are assessing the root cause of the issue before attempting to restore the X-band transmitter.

Although following Voyager's journey feels like watching over an aging legend, the hope remains that this minor setback is temporary, allowing Voyager 1 to continue its voyage into interstellar space.

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