By: Eric Xu

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, has finally restored contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft after two weeks of silence. NASA made a mistake in a message, causing the Voyager to turn away from the Earth, but now they have fixed it.

NASA is one of the best space companies to ever exist. The government funds all of their needs, and has helped it achieve multiple successful space landings. This included the Voyager 2, the successor to the Voyager 1. NASA documented that the Voyager 2 was, “the second spacecraft to enter interstellar space.” It was sent into space on August 20, 1977, and reached interstellar space on November 5, 2018. Voyager 2 is currently in the constellation Pavo, which is around 180 light years away. The only other spacecraft further away is Voyager 1. The Voyager 2 was meant to be used to do research on distant stars and constellations, where people cannot go. All was going according to plan until NASA made a mistake and lost communication with the Voyager 2.

Around two weeks ago, NASA accidentally sent a command to turn Voyager 2 into the opposite direction of the Earth, subsequently removing communication with it. NASA needed to turn the Voyager 2 a mere 2 degrees to start sending signals again, and the command was sent. This took 36 hours in total to send and receive the message and send a reply back. In this time, anything could have happened. If it shifted a bit more in this time frame, it would be even harder for NASA to turn it back again. Luckily, this long shot worked, and on Friday, August 11th, it started returning data again. This two-week outage was the longest the Voyager 2 had ever experienced, and NASA has to be ready for it if it happens again.

The Voyager 2 is now working perfectly fine, and is communicating like nothing happened. If there were any small error, though, it might still not be in working condition. Now, NASA has to prepare for this possibility again, because there is no way of knowing what problems the Voyager 2 will face.

Citations:

● https://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocfo/appropriations/congressional_committees

● https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2023-08-04/nasa-restores-contact-with-voyager-2-spacecraft-after-mistake-led-to-weeks-of-silence

● https://www.elpasoinc.com/nasa-restores-contact-with-nasas-voyager-2-spacecraft-after-mistake-led-to-weeks-of-silence/article_fd402e62-0901-507c-ba87-bdfc3478c77c.html

● https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-2/in-depth/#:~:text=Voyager%202%20is%20the%20only,moons%20and%20two%20new%20rings.

● https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/45-years-ago-voyager-2-begins-its-epic-journey-to-the-outer-planets-and-beyond

● https://theskylive.com/where-is-voyager2#:~:text=Voyager%202%20is%20currently%20in,59%C2%B0%2013’%2056%E2%80%9D.

● https://www.go-astronomy.com/constellations.php?Name=Pavo#:~:text=Main%20Stars%20in%20Pavo&text=A%20blue%2Dwhite%20giant%20star,approximately%20140%20light%2Dyears%20away.