Voyager 2: Nasa Picks Up 'Heartbeat' Signal After Sending Wrong Command

[naomi24]

Not a question, just for those who might be interested in a probe launched almost 50 years ago and thought lost. I think it's fantastic news.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-66371569

[douglas9401]

Without doubt one of the most remarkable things ever done, creating this machine and team.

[ToraToraTora]

Oh no! That alien entity from STTMP will bring "Viger" back to the creator! We're doomed I tell ya!

[ClareTG0ld]

Don't be silly, TTT, you know full well that was Voyager VI which hasn't been launched yet :P

[ToraToraTora]

CTG but isn't "Viger" in STTMP supposed to be Voyager with some paint missing so it looks like "V i ger"?

[ClareTG0ld]

Yes, but it was specifically Voyager 6 that was returned in the film.

I suppose the film could have got it wrong, of course... in which case yeah we should watch out!

[ToraToraTora]

....that's great news, a remarkable achievement and it makes me think of recent alien discussions and point out that it will still take 300 years to reach the Oort cloud and wont leave the outer edge for 30,000 years.

[Arksided]

Interesting like many others thought it was lost for good.

[ToraToraTora]

CTG, was it? Fair enough I haven't seen it for years, not my favourite TOS film.

[Geoffrey13]

It's reached the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter's let it in. Good job he didn't send it to Hell, back here again.

[Old_Geezer]

Did hear this.

Going to be a while before the reset points it back towards Earth though. I assume it won't be storing data during the break and sending it afterwards. So that'll be lost.

[naomi24]

OG, I didn’t realise they planned to bring it back.

[Old_Geezer]

I read that there are regular automatic resets, this would realign the antenna (or whatever) but they can't trigger one, they just have to wait for the next. Off the top of my head, I think it stated it was due next October.

[Old_Geezer]

Actually I think it was in the article you posted.

[Lie-in King]

Fascinating, what an incredible machine :-)

[Hymie]

It was never lost, someone accidently sent a signal instructing the craft to mis-orient its antenna, such that communication with earth was lost. But this eventuality was considered by the designers, in that it would automatically reset every so often.

As it says in the article, this next reset is due to happen on 15 October, when full communication should be restored.

[jno]

and we can ask it "What did you do on your holiday?"

[Togo]

Douglas was correct. The wealth of data gathered has been immense. All done on a still operational 8 track! Remember them? Everything still operational after 46 years. We don't make things like that any more.

[Togo]

Found this. Worth a look.

[Hymie]

Apparently when Voyage 2 is unable to communicate with earth, it has an onboard digital tape recorder for transmission at another time – so the answer is probably yes.

[Hymie]

It is amazing that we can receive Voyager 2’s radio signals transmitted at around 20 Watts, over a distance exceeding 12 billion miles.