Wow, I just read the wiki. It has a 64 Megabyte tape storage, so after it realigns the antenna they can receive the data they’ve missed. Pretty state of the art for 1977. I wonder how they shielded it from radiation. The fuel source of the reactor lasts probably until 2026. After that, it’ll travel as a brick, most likely long after humans rm -rf’d
Wikipedia states: “In July 2023, communication with Voyager 2 was lost when flight control pointed its antenna away from Earth, moving it by 2 degrees away from Earth. The NASA dish antenna in Canberra is being used to search for the space probe and will be used to saturate its location with commands to re-align the probe’s antenna in an attempt to re-establish the radio link. If NASA fails to contact the probe, it is expected that an automatic system on Voyager 2 will direct its dish toward Earth in October 2023.”
So essentially someone probably wanted to move it one way and it moved the other. It should automatically reposition itself in contact with NASA in 2 months. It’s amazing the foresight we had in 1977 to write in all sorts of catch-alls… In 2 months we’ll get back in contact with the probe and it will have its own place, hanging out with aliens.
Sounds like it’s a recoverable error (if the scientists can’t do it the spacecraft has an automated process that’ll kick in in October.) Still, I can’t imagine what that must feel like.
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