Amateur stargazer in Dwingeloo in the northeastern Netherlands have picked up a signal from NASA ’s ail Voyager 1 spacecraft , around 24.9 billion kilometre ( 15.5 billion miles ) aside .
The Voyager probe , launched in 1977 , have performed stunningly well over nigh half a hundred , flying past various planetary bodies and studying them on their way to the taboo reaches of the Solar System . But clock time , and a fall supplying of fuel , have take their toll on the space vehicle in late year , forcing NASA toshut down scientific instrumentsin order to keep them running .
Several glitch have taken place over the last year too , with Voyager 1sending back nonsensefor six months before NASA was able to sort the issuance . In the latest error to strike the probe , on October 19 it break off sending signal back to Earth at all .
However , the impressive spacecraft ’s onboard computing machine was able to work out the position by exchange to using a sender that had not been usedsince 1981 .
“ The flight team suspected that Voyager 1 ’s flaw protection arrangement was triggered twice more and that it turn off the X - circle transmitter and switched to a second receiving set transmitter call the S - set , ” NASA ’s Tony Greicius explain in theVoyager Blogsoon after the vector was confirmed to be working .
“ While the S - band uses less power , Voyager 1 had not used it to pass on with Earth since 1981 . It utilise a different frequency than the decade - band transmitter signal is significantly fainter . The flight team was not sealed the S - circle could be find at Earth due to the space vehicle ’s distance , but railroad engineer with the Deep Space connection were able-bodied to find out it . ”
Though the sender wasworking , Voyager was still not fully functional . But inan update , NASA has confirm that they were able to reactivate the X - band transmitter , and the spacecraft resumed collecting data with its four remaining power - up scientific discipline instruments in the workweek of November 18 .
gratefully , the signals have from Voyager 1 still appear to be consistent and strong enough to observe on Earth . Amateur stargazer in the Netherlands were able-bodied to detect the signal , using the Dwingeloo radio scope , now a national memorial available for public projects .
" Since the Dwingeloo scope was designed for follow at lower frequencies than the 8.4GHz telemetry transmit by Voyager 1 , a unexampled transmitting aerial had to be mounted . At these high frequencies , the interlocking of the dish is less reflective , making it extra gainsay to get faint signal , " C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station ( CAMRAS ) explained in ablog post .
" To find the very decrepit carrier signal in the randomness , we used orbital forecasting of Voyager 1 to correct for the Doppler shift in frequency stimulate by move of Earth and Voyager 1 . By doing so , the signaling could be see live in the scope observation elbow room . Later analysis confirmed that the Doppler geological fault tally to that of Voyager 1 . "
Despite the telescope being far small than those that make up NASA ’s Deep Space connection , the squad was able to receive the signal , induce it one of the few telescopes on Earth to have received communicating from Voyager 1 . At four times the distance of Pluto , the signaling took over 23 hour to make it to Earth .
Meanwhile at NASA , scientists are now essay to render the spacecraft to the condition it was in before the communication errors arise , include doing a reset of the system that synchronizes Voyager 1 ’s onboard computers . With a petty luck , there ’s a few more years of life in the old cad yet , before it powers down completely .
