15.4 billion kilometers from Earth in interstellar space space, Traveler 1 won’t last much longer.

Actually, NASA‘s flight engineers may have thought the 47-year-old mission had finally called it quits when the uncrewed spacecraft recently went silent. The probe had turned off its main radio transmitter to communicate with mission control.

Voyager’s problem began on October 16, when flight controllers sent the robot explorer a somewhat routine command to turn on a heater. Two days later, when NASA expected to receive a response from the spacecraft, the team learned that something had been triggered. Travelerof the failure protection system, which turned off its X-band transmitter. By October 19, communication was completely interrupted.

The flight team was not optimistic.

However, Voyager 1 was equipped with a backup that relies on a different, albeit significantly lower, frequency. No one knew if the second radio transmitter could still function, given the extreme distance of the aging spacecraft. A few days later, engineers from Deep Space Networka system of three enormous radio antenna arrays on Earth, found the signal whispering on the S-band transmitter. The device had not been used since 1981, according to NASA.

“The team is now working to gather information that will help them understand what happened and return Voyager 1 to normal operation,” NASA said in a recent statement. mission update.

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Both Traveler 1 and his twin, Traveler 2have been evolving for almost half a century, until now beyond their initial life expectancy. Launched in 1977, the duo was initially intended to study Jupiter and Saturntheir moons and the rings of Saturn. For the trip across two planets, they were built to last only five years.

After their initial success, the engineers doubled their goals to include two more giant planets, Uranus And Neptune. Between the two spacecraft, they explored four planets, 48 ​​moons, and a multitude of planetary magnetic fields and rings.

In August 2012, Voyager 1 made history by entering interstellar space, the region between stars filled with material ejected by other stars. dead stars millions of years ago. Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft to ever operate outside the heliospherethe region of space affected by the sunthe constant flow of materials.

Voyager 1 was launched from Earth in 1977 and is the most distant man-made object in space.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Voyager 1 is moving away from the solar system at high speed at over 38,000 mph and it is the most distant man-made object from Earth. It is so far away that it takes 23 hours for a command to reach the spacecraft, and another 23 hours for mission control to receive a response.

NASA has previously stated that the Voyagers generated approximately 4 watts less power each year, limiting the number of systems the spacecraft can use. Flight controllers sometimes turned off equipment to save power. The goal is to keep both in operation beyond 2025, according to the agency.

It is not yet clear why Voyager 1’s failure protection system cut off the main radio transmitter. When onboard problems arise, such as the spacecraft’s excessive power consumption, the system will automatically turn off less critical equipment so they can continue flying. Based on Voyager 1 data, the spacecraft should have had enough power to turn on the heater without incident.

Voyager 1 is moving away from the solar system at more than 38,000 mph and is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech graphic

Interstellar space is a high-radiation environment in which nothing man-made has ever flown before. This means that the only thing teams managing older probes can count on is surprises.

Last month, the team fixed a propellant problem on Voyager 1. At this point in the mission, nothing is easy or guaranteed, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said in a declaration.

“Any decisions we have to make in the future will require much more analysis and caution than before,” she said.