The NASA probe "Voyager 1," which recently recovered from a significant malfunction, has once again stopped sending data back to Earth, reports Gizmodo.
According to NASA's statement, the spacecraft temporarily lost contact with Earth after one of its radio transmitters was turned off. "Voyager 1" had to switch to a second transmitter that had not been activated since 1981. Scientists are hopeful that this is a temporary measure while they investigate the cause of the failure.
The flight team for "Voyager 1" first detected issues with the spacecraft when it did not respond to a command from Earth. On October 16, the team utilized NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) array of radio antennas to turn off one of the probe's instruments.
Following that, "Voyager 1" was supposed to transmit engineering data back to the team, which would have shown how the spacecraft executed the command from Earth. This process takes a couple of days, as it takes about 23 hours for the signal to travel the 24 billion kilometers to the probe. Instead, a fault protection system activated on the spacecraft.
This system, in order to conserve the spacecraft's energy, reduced the rate at which the transmitter sent data back. However, this energy-saving measure also altered the X-band radio signal, the frequency range within the electromagnetic spectrum that the DSN antennas detect.
The flight team was able to pick up a weak signal, but then contact with "Voyager 1" was completely lost. Apparently, the fault protection system fully turned off the X-band transmitter.
The spacecraft had to switch to a second S-band transmitter, which consumes less energy but has a much weaker signal. It had not been used since 1981, and the team was uncertain whether this signal could even be detected, as "Voyager 1" has traveled an immense distance during that time.
Now, the NASA team is working to identify the error that may have triggered the fault protection system.
The "Voyager 1" spacecraft was launched in 1977, nearly a month after its twin "Voyager 2" began its own journey.
"Voyager 1" has been in flight for 47 years, which has undoubtedly affected the condition of the interstellar probe. NASA engineers have had to devise unconventional solutions to problems repeatedly to maintain this iconic mission.
As a reminder, NASA has once again managed to save "Voyager 1" in interstellar space. The 47-year-old farthest NASA spacecraft had to be slightly repaired once more to enable communication with Earth.