How Engineers Saved Voyager 1: The Ingenious Remote Fix After a Thruster Failure

This year, NASA faced a critical moment with Voyager 1, which has been exploring our solar system since 1977. The team had to decide whether to upgrade a vital radio antenna or risk losing contact with the spacecraft. This antenna is the only way Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, communicate with Earth.

Since 2004, Voyager 1 has relied on backup thrusters, as the primary ones failed long ago. However, the backup thrusters were showing warning signs. There was residue building up in a fuel line that might prevent them from working altogether. “Think of it as the nozzle getting smaller and smaller with debris,” explains Voyager Mission Manager Kareem Badaruddin. This situation meant that even a slight misalignment of antennas could lead to losing contact entirely.

Voyager program scientist Patrick Koehn points out that even a small tip away, just a fraction of a degree, could swing the signal beam away from Earth. If that happens, it’s as if the beam misses the planet by a tremendous distance.

The mission team had to make quick decisions as Deep Space Station 43 in Canberra, Australia, the only station powerful enough to contact the Voyagers, was set to be offline for upgrades starting May 4. It wouldn’t be fully operational again until February next year. The pressure intensified, as this meant limited time to test or implement any fixes.

Initially, the engineers suspected an electronic glitch turned the primary thrusters’ heaters off. There was a real gamble involved—reviving these thrusters could risk an explosion. They opted to test the thruster without igniting it first to avoid disaster.

Encouragingly, on March 20, the team confirmed the test was successful. This news ignited hopes. Both spacecraft have recently shown signs of aging. In 2023, Voyager 1 sent back garbled messages, but those issues were resolved. The same year, Voyager 2 briefly misaligned its antenna towards Earth.

Looking ahead, the Voyager team aims to keep the spacecraft operational for their 50th anniversary in 2027. “There’s no reason it wouldn’t go past that,” Koehn asserts, especially now that the thrusters are functioning well.

Space history curator Matt Shindell from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum notes that the Voyagers have been invaluable. They provided the best data from the outer planets, especially Uranus and Neptune. “The fact that it’s still alive and sending back information is amazing,” he states.

Today, scientists are still learning from the Voyagers, particularly about the solar activity’s effects at vast distances. They observe how solar events like coronal mass ejections interact with interstellar space, gathering real-time data about conditions beyond our solar system that no other craft can provide. “They’re seeing pressure pulses from our sun,” Koehn explains, showcasing the ongoing importance of these space probes.

As Voyager continues its journey, it serves as a bridge between human curiosity and the universe, reminding us of what we can discover about the cosmos.

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