Voyager 2 sends out a 'heartbeat' signal after NASA accidentally interrupted communications

In December 2018, Voyager 2 left our solar system, becoming the second interstellar spacecraft in history. Credit: MPI/Getty Images

NASA's Voyager 2 probe sent a 'heartbeat' signal to Earth from more than 12 billion miles away after communications were mistakenly interrupted last month.

Communication with the spacecraft, which has been exploring the universe since 1977, was interrupted. broken on July 21 when controllers accidentally sent the wrong command, which deflected the antenna point two degrees from the Earth.

As a result of the adjustment, the probe was unable to transmit data or receive commands to mission control, a situation that was not to be resolved until it performed an automatic reorientation maneuver on October 15, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said.

Given the distance to the spacecraft, the signal will travel more than 18 hours before reaching the antennas.

Voyager 2 space probe

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory statement says: expected.»

Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, said the discovery that the probe was «alive and operational… cheered us up.»

A team in California is «now putting together a new team to try to point the spacecraft's antenna at Earth,” Ms. Dodd added, though she said there was a “low chance” it would work.

Considering October. a few months later, Ms. Dodd said they would «try to send the commands a few times» to try to reconnect before then.

Voyager 2 is currently 12.3 billion miles from Earth. In December 2018, he left the Sun's protective magnetic bubble called the heliosphere and is currently traveling in the space between stars known as interstellar space.

Before leaving our solar system, he explored Jupiter and Saturn and became the first and so far the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.

Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space in 2012 and is now nearly 15 billion miles from Earth.

On Friday, NASA's spacecraft social media account posted a message from Voyager 1 name:

You may have heard… Voyager 2 is taking a break from sending data until October. In the meantime, I'm here, almost 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth, and I'm doing well! — V1

More from our team: https://t.co/S3BFRo9Va9

— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) July 28, 2023

Both Voyager Spacecraft Carry Golden Records — 12- one-inch gold-plated copper discs designed to transmit the history of our world to aliens.

These include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium that serves as a radioactive clock that allows recipients to determine the date of the launch of the spacecraft, and symbolic instructions explaining how Play a record.

The contents of the record, selected for NASA by a committee chaired by the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, include encoded images of life on Earth, as well as music and sounds that can be played with the included stylus.< /p>

The Voyagers are currently continuing to transmit scientific data, although their batteries are expected to eventually run out sometime after 2025.

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They will then continue wander the Milky Way, perhaps for an eternity, in silence.