The US space agency Nasa has lost contact with the “Voyager 2” spacecraft – but help could now come from Australia. “Voyager 2”, which is currently around 20 billion kilometers from Earth, is currently unable to send data to Earth or receive commands from the control center, NASA said.
Contact was lost when a series of scheduled commands on July 21 accidentally caused the spacecraft’s antenna to be pointed two degrees away from Earth, it said. However, a German expert is confident that contact can be restored.
“Heartbeat” of the spaceship detected
Nasa is hoping for an automatic realignment of the probe, which will serve to focus the “Voyager 2” antenna back on Earth. This is scheduled for October 15th. The scientists expect that communication will then be up and running again.
On Tuesday afternoon, NASA also announced that the Deep Space Network, a global network of space communication stations, had discovered a signal from “Voyager 2” during a routine check. “It’s a bit like hearing the spacecraft’s ‘heartbeat’ and confirming that it’s still transmitting, as the engineers expected.”
Previously, help could come from Australia, local media reported. In the coming week, a huge parabolic antenna from a NASA project in Canberra will try to send signals to “Voyager 2” in order to realign the probe correctly, the broadcaster ABC reported, citing NASA.
“Human failure”
“Something like this is a nightmare for every satellite operator,” said Ulrich Walter, ex-astronaut and professor of space technology at the Technical University of Munich. Usually one collects several commands and sends them together to the probe. They are currently on their way to Voyager 2 for around 18 hours. “If you make a typo there, then a loss of contact can happen.” A command is therefore usually checked several times, but for such an effect it is sufficient to type a 5 instead of a 6, for example. “These are human errors.”
Walter sees a good chance that NASA will be able to contact “Voyager 2” again on October 15th. After a period of time, all probes would automatically point to Earth. “Voyager 2’s battery only has about half its original capacity. That and the remaining fuel should be enough to rotate the probe,” said Walter. “The data obtained in the time will be saved.”
Beyond the limits of the solar system
“Voyager 1” (in German: traveler) was launched on September 5, 1977, “Voyager 2” on August 20, 1977. Both probes are unmanned. The aim of the two probes launched in 1977 was to explore planets in the outer solar system. After that, Nasa simply extended the mission so that the probes eventually flew beyond the edge of the solar system.
Now they are collecting data from interstellar space. There is plasma, i.e. gas, in a special state, Walter explained. Its density decreases more and more the further away it is from the solar system.
