WolandAug 1, 2023

12.3 Billion Miles Away: NASA Has Lost Communication With Voyager 2 Spacecraft

https://lemm.ee/post/2678808

12.3 Billion Miles Away: NASA Has Lost Communication With Voyager 2 Spacecraft - lemm.ee

NASA’s Voyager 2 has lost communication with Earth due to an unintentional shift in its antenna direction. The next programmed orientation adjustment on October 15 is expected to restore communication, while Voyager 1 continues to operate as usual. A series of scheduled commands directed at NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 led to an unintentional change in antenna direction. Consequently, the antenna moved 2 degrees off course from Earth, causing the spacecraft to lose its ability to receive commands or transmit data back to our planet.

Show threadParabolaAug 1, 2023
As a software engineer I feel for the person who accidentally sent the wrong value and caused an icon to be offline, potentially forever.
Show threadEnderWi99inAug 1, 2023
It's not going to be offline forever. It'll reorient in a couple months. It was designed to do this when comms are lost. Still a little scary though.
Show threadfoggyAug 1, 2023

This assumes their understanding of what caused the problem is accurate.

Should it be ever so slightly imprecise, it could mean we lose contact forever.

Show threadzalackAug 1, 2023

This is one of those things that sounds meaningful, but can be said about literally any problem in any system, and not all knowledge requires precision. If the engineers at NASA who know the system say this is a known error state that will be fixed the next time the system designed to correct it is scheduled to fire, there's not a whole lot added by saying sure, but what if they're wrong?

It's just stating the table stakes of existence.

Show threadglimseAug 1, 2023
But what if I, armchair scientist on Lemmy, sees a flaw in the plan of some of the greatest engineers in the world? Doesn’t the world deserve to know what I think about the communications system I just became aware of today?
Show threadDanTilDawnAug 2, 2023
That all depends - how many joints did you smoke before outsmarting the engineers? 🧐
Show threadButt Pirate
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Aug 2, 2023 at 1:57amWeb