An update to my Voyager 1 silence post. NASA/JPL has more detail, Space.com reports.
What we know
- Voyager 1 went quiet for about 48 hours, Oct. 18-20, then came back on its own before engineers could send a fix
- Mission manager Kareem Badaruddin: “This is the first time we’ve seen the spacecraft do something like this, but we are also at a point in the mission where we have to expect the unexpected”
- It looks like one thruster group went offline and backups kicked in, consistent with a safe-mode style response
- It reaches one light-day from Earth on Nov. 18: about 16.09 billion miles. A command will take a day out and a day back
My take
A 49-year-old probe in interstellar space healing itself. Still amazing.
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
