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yesterday

Voyager 1 Nears One Light‑Day as Engineers Probe Mid‑October Thruster Glitch

Power‑saving hardware swaps have extended instrument life ahead of the roughly 24‑hour one‑way communications delay Voyager will face on crossing one light‑day.

Image
An artist's concept of Voyager 1 in deep space. Credit: NASA
(Credit: NASA/JPL)
EXTENDED FOR WEB - Voyager 1 photograph of Jupiter & two of its moons, taken on February 5, 1979, from a distance of 28.4 million kilometres. The white satellite at far right is Europa; the red satellite in front of Jupiter itself is Io. Jupiter's Great Red Spot can be seen at lower left of the planet.

Overview

  • Voyager 1 briefly stopped answering ground calls for about 48 hours between Oct. 18 and Oct. 20 before engineers reestablished contact.
  • Mission teams say one group of the probe’s thrusters went offline and the spacecraft’s programmed backup thrusters automatically took over while engineers investigate the root cause.
  • In early September engineers performed a power‑saving reconfiguration nicknamed the “Big Bang” that swapped three higher‑power units for lower‑power alternatives to delay further instrument shutdowns.
  • Voyager 1 is expected to reach one light‑day from Earth on Nov. 18, which will create about a 24‑hour one‑way and 48‑hour round‑trip command delay and force new, slower operational routines.
  • Launched in 1977 and powered by decaying radioisotope generators that lose roughly four watts a year, the probe now relies on onboard fault protection, the Deep Space Network, and careful power management to keep returning interstellar data.