Humanity’s most distant space probe jeopardized by computer glitch

[smp]

From Ars Technica:
“ "It would be the biggest miracle if we get it back. We certainly haven't given up." “

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/h ... er-glitch/

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[Graeme1858]

Thanks Stephen.

50 years gone and still an interesting read!

Graeme

[Lady Fraktor]

I do hope they manage to recover.

[Michael131313]

This is really to bad. I have enjoyed Voyagers info for many years. Voyager has had a long life even outliving it's creators.

[AntennaGuy]

As an antenna guy, these lines from the article caught my attention: "The spacecraft's vast distance and position in the southern sky require NASA to use the largest 230-foot (70-meter) antenna at a Deep Space Network tracking site in Australia," Yup. And "Voyager's 12-foot (3.7-meter) dish antenna..." Yup. Right. Now think about those two antennas in a related context -- the communication challenges with vastly tinier spacecraft, vastly farther away, i.e., of the type that some ambitious people suggest for project "Breakthrough Starshot." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot. So forget microwaves. These folks hope to communicate with lasers: https://www.popsci.com/three-questions- ... -starshot/ . Not gonna happen in my lifetime. Probably not yours either (that is, if you are old enough to read this today). But the future keeps going, so maybe our descendants can see it happen.