NASA’s Voyager-2 has been traveling through space for 43 years (and almost two years in interstellar space ) and has been completely alone since the last eight months in which contact was lost.
Fortunately, last week, some commands were sent to the spacecraft during a test, and after 34 hours and 48 minutes, the team received a salute from deep space . Voyager 2 was still alive! The spacecraft is perfectly fine and capable of executing commands 18.8 billion kilometers from Earth .
The DSS4 antenna, Deep Space Station 43 , is located in Canberra, Australia, and is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, the collection of radio antennas used to communicate with spacecraft beyond the orbit of the Moon. The other two facilities are in Goldstone, California and Madrid, Spain.
Built in 1972 , the antenna has been improved over time, but most of the equipment is the original from almost 50 years ago. The most recent longest offline period was required to provide a full refresh to DSS43 and install new hardware . The 70 meter wide antenna will be fully operational in February.
“This test communication with Voyager 2 definitely tells us that things are on track with the work we are doing,” explains Brad Arnold, DSN project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
The Voyager-2 probe continues to travel and make scientific measurements 31 years after its main mission ended. Keep it up.
