Voyager out of action
The Voyager 2 spacecraft, which in more than 30 years has reached the edge of the solar system, has broken. Due to the failure of the data processing system, scientists are unable to properly read the new information from the ship.
In 1977, with two weeks from the Earth, two spacecraft were launched in different directions, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Both devices successfully worked and continue to work out their scientific program, which was to obtain images of planets and objects on border of the solar system. One of the latest scientific achievements of Voyager is that outside the boundary of the shock wave, which forms in an area where the speed of solar wind particles becomes less than the speed of sound, temperature and other environmental properties were not at all what astrophysics expected.
NASA employees found problems with the Voyager 2 spacecraft, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.
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On April 22, engineers noticed that the data transmitted by the device was different from normal. The probe at the first opportunity was transferred to the mode when only internal data are received on Earth, that is, information on the state of the apparatus itself. It happened a little more than a day, because Voyager 2 is located at a distance of 13.8 billion km from Earth, and the signal to him in one direction is 13 hours. Work in this mode showed that the ship had failed its own data processing system, and that is why scientists can not decipher the information coming from it.
Devices Voyager are the most remote from the Earth man-made devices. The probe under the number “one” managed to fly farther than its “twin brother” - almost 17 billion km from our planet to it now.
Initially, the Voyager 2 mission was supposed to be four years in time, and the purpose of the scientific program of the device were Jupiter and Saturn with their satellites. But, as is often the case, the probe was able to continue work after the first time allotted to it and for 33 years, as stated by one of the Voyager research scientists Ed Stone, conveyed “a lot of unique data”. "Never before have we seen Uranus and Neptune so close," Stone said, adding that it will soon become clear whether NASA engineers will be able to fix the problem and whether the device can continue to transmit scientific data.
For Voyager 2, these are not the first problems that occurred during 33 years of flight. The device had already failed the radio transmitter compensator, and one of the memory cells of the onboard computer, and there were problems with the power supply and the television platform. In addition, the constant removal of the apparatus from the Earth requires constant modernization of the receiving equipment complex so that the signal from the Voyager can be fixed.
On the disc, in particular, the sounds of the Earth (the whispering of the mother and the crying of the child, the voices of birds and animals, the sound of wind and rain, etc.), famous musical works, from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry, greetings in 54 languages ​​(in Russian it says “Hello, I welcome you!”) and the appeal of Jimmy Carter, who at the time of the launch of the vehicles in 1977 was President of the United States.
Approximately five years later, the vehicles will descend from orbit around the Sun and travel to the depths of the galaxy, where, perhaps, someone will find them, get a disk and be able to decipher the information on it.
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In 1977, with two weeks from the Earth, two spacecraft were launched in different directions, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Both devices successfully worked and continue to work out their scientific program, which was to obtain images of planets and objects on border of the solar system. One of the latest scientific achievements of Voyager is that outside the boundary of the shock wave, which forms in an area where the speed of solar wind particles becomes less than the speed of sound, temperature and other environmental properties were not at all what astrophysics expected.
NASA employees found problems with the Voyager 2 spacecraft, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.
')
On April 22, engineers noticed that the data transmitted by the device was different from normal. The probe at the first opportunity was transferred to the mode when only internal data are received on Earth, that is, information on the state of the apparatus itself. It happened a little more than a day, because Voyager 2 is located at a distance of 13.8 billion km from Earth, and the signal to him in one direction is 13 hours. Work in this mode showed that the ship had failed its own data processing system, and that is why scientists can not decipher the information coming from it.
Devices Voyager are the most remote from the Earth man-made devices. The probe under the number “one” managed to fly farther than its “twin brother” - almost 17 billion km from our planet to it now.
Initially, the Voyager 2 mission was supposed to be four years in time, and the purpose of the scientific program of the device were Jupiter and Saturn with their satellites. But, as is often the case, the probe was able to continue work after the first time allotted to it and for 33 years, as stated by one of the Voyager research scientists Ed Stone, conveyed “a lot of unique data”. "Never before have we seen Uranus and Neptune so close," Stone said, adding that it will soon become clear whether NASA engineers will be able to fix the problem and whether the device can continue to transmit scientific data.
According to preliminary calculations, the battery energy of the device should be enough for at least 2025.
For Voyager 2, these are not the first problems that occurred during 33 years of flight. The device had already failed the radio transmitter compensator, and one of the memory cells of the onboard computer, and there were problems with the power supply and the television platform. In addition, the constant removal of the apparatus from the Earth requires constant modernization of the receiving equipment complex so that the signal from the Voyager can be fixed.
In addition to the scientific equipment on board each of the probes is a golden disk containing information about the Earth.
On the disc, in particular, the sounds of the Earth (the whispering of the mother and the crying of the child, the voices of birds and animals, the sound of wind and rain, etc.), famous musical works, from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry, greetings in 54 languages ​​(in Russian it says “Hello, I welcome you!”) and the appeal of Jimmy Carter, who at the time of the launch of the vehicles in 1977 was President of the United States.
Approximately five years later, the vehicles will descend from orbit around the Sun and travel to the depths of the galaxy, where, perhaps, someone will find them, get a disk and be able to decipher the information on it.
Source
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/93246/
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