‘Big Bang fix’ could be buying more time for the farthest spacecraft from Earth
NASA said the swap freed enough power to keep Voyager 2’s three remaining instruments operating for an extra year.
- On July 9, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory implemented a "Big Bang" fix on Voyager 2, swapping heaters and a tape recorder for lower-power alternatives to extend the spacecraft's science mission.
- Engineers at JPL have spent months managing Voyager 2's dwindling power supply, as the historic spacecraft is now 13 billion miles from Earth and requires heat to prevent fuel lines from freezing in interstellar space.
- The team turned off two dedicated heaters and a digital tape recorder, replacing them with lower-power devices that successfully added 2 years or more of operational life to Voyager 2.
- Voyager 2's onboard software now includes the lower-powered devices in its default safe state, according to a JPL spokesperson, ensuring continued operations if the spacecraft detects an anomaly.
- Engineers will next attempt a similar "Big Bang" fix on Voyager 1, which is 16 billion miles from Earth and requires nearly 24 hours for signals to reach the probe.
15 Articles
15 Articles
NASA grants Voyager 2 probe another year of power with risky 'Big Bang' maneuver. Now, will it work for Voyager 1?
Scientists are preparing for an interstellar rescue of humanity's most distant spacecraft, Voyager 1, after fixing up its twin from billions of miles away.According to a NASA statement released Aug. 4, a clever power-saving maneuver known as the "Big Bang" helped the agency avoid having to shut off another one of the Voyager 2 probe's three remaining science instruments later this year. The Big Bang procedure involves selectively shutting off so…
‘Big Bang fix’ could be buying more time for the farthest spacecraft from Earth
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — An ambitious effort to boost an aging probe on its journey through the uncharted territory of interstellar space seems to have found success.Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have spent the last few months implementing what they nicknamed the “Big Bang” fix to buy the historic Voyager 2 spacecraft more time to continue its science mission.Voyager 2 is roughly 21.35 billion ki…
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