The Voyager 1 spacecraft underwent another "surgery" in March, 23 light-hours away from earth
The Voyager 1 spacecraft underwent another "surgery" in March, 23 light-hours away from earth
The team had to revive a thruster used for roll control whose heaters had failed in 2004. The tubes of the backup thrusters currently in use are getting clogged and may fail this year.
The delicate operation required turning on the failed thruster and flipping a switch to enable its heater and 🤞
All very tricky and risky operations, performed from 23 light-hours away on 1970’s era hardware.
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If roll thrusters fired because the star tracker drifted and if the heater was still off, then an explosion would destroy Voyager 1.
That is some high stakes remote maintenance. I don't want to imaging the stress for everybody involved. The relief when they finally got a signal two days later confirming the craft was still in obe piece and the heater was on must have been immense. I get stressed enough waiting minutes for a remote server to come back up.
DSN Canberra upgrade will cause loss of comms until Feb 2026
Oh great, another stressful wait!
I get stressed enough waiting minutes for a remote server to come back up.
Shit... it taking longer than usual, it's never this long... f5 f5 f5, oh fuck what did I do... oh there it is!