{"id":248017,"date":"2025-05-19T22:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T22:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/nasa-engineers-revive-long-dormant-thrusters-on-voyager-1-the-farthest-spacecraft-from-earth-in-a-miracle-save\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T22:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T22:06:31","slug":"nasa-engineers-revive-long-dormant-thrusters-on-voyager-1-the-farthest-spacecraft-from-earth-in-a-miracle-save","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=248017","title":{"rendered":"NASA Engineers Revive Long-Dormant Thrusters on Voyager 1, the Farthest Spacecraft From Earth, in a ‘Miracle Save’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In the nick of time, NASA teams addressed clogging issues in the probe\u2019s backup roll thrusters, before the only antenna capable of sending commands to it went offline<\/h2>\n
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Margherita Bassi<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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An artistic rendering of one of the Voyager probes.
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In a nail-biting mission to secure Voyager 1 before the only antenna that can send commands to the spacecraft goes offline for upgrades, NASA engineers revived thrusters aboard the probe that have been considered dead for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a glorious moment,\u201d Todd Barber<\/a>, the mission\u2019s propulsion lead at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), says in a statement<\/a>. \u201cTeam morale was very high that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voyager 1<\/a> and Voyager 2 launched<\/a> in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn as well as examine some of the planets\u2019 moons. Since then, however, their mission has been repeatedly extended. The pair of probes also investigated Uranus and Neptune, 48 moons in the solar system and achieved what no human-made object had ever done before: They entered interstellar space. Voyager 1 first left our solar system in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed in 2018. Needless to say, the probes have transcended their mission, which was originally intended to last just five years, per Mashable<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Elisha Sauers.<\/p>\n

The aging Voyagers have hit several hiccups in recent years, and the latest involved Voyager 1\u2019s roll thrusters. Among various propulsion devices, the roll thrusters rotate the probes, keeping the antennas facing toward Earth for communication and the spacecraft pointed at a guide star, which is used for orientation. Each has a primary and backup set of roll thrusters, which NASA engineers toggle between using to avoid clogging their fuel tubes from overuse.<\/p>\n

In 2004, however, Voyager 1\u2019s primary roll thrusters stopped working after two internal heaters lost power, according to NASA\u2019s statement. The team concluded that the heaters were as good as dead and continued the mission with only the backup roll thrusters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at that time, the team was OK with accepting that the primary roll thrusters didn\u2019t work, because they had a perfectly good backup,\u201d Kareem Badaruddin<\/a>, Voyager mission manager at JPL, explains in the statement. \u201cAnd frankly, they probably didn\u2019t think the Voyagers were going to keep going for another 20 years.\u201d After all, \u201cit\u2019s amazing that the two spacecraft are still working,\u201d as former Voyager project scientist Ed Stone<\/a> told <\/em>Space.com<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Mike Wall in 2017, four decades after the mission\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

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The @NASAVoyager<\/a> spacecraft are in a planned communications pause as the antenna that commands them is undergoing upgrades.<\/p>\n

In advance, the team found a fix for thrusters on Voyager 1 that have been inoperable for more than 2 decades! https:\/\/t.co\/PFRNyEfyAn<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/bIhOmU8Hgs<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Now, the backup roll thrusters\u2019 fuel tubes have accumulated enough buildup residue to likely cause serious problems later this year, so the team decided to re-evaluate the situation. Their work was even more time-sensitive given that Australia\u2019s Deep Space Station 43\u2014the only antenna in NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network<\/a> powerful enough to send commands to Voyager 1 and 2\u2014was about to go offline. Planned upgrades between May 4, 2025, and February of next year are making it unusable, with only brief windows of operation in August and December.<\/p>\n

Without the antenna, the team can\u2019t send instructions to either probe. And if the backup roll thruster were to become totally clogged while the antenna is offline, it might be impossible for engineers to fix the issue.<\/p>\n

The team suggested the thrusters\u2019 heaters had stopped working because their circuits had unexpectedly flipped a switch back in 2004. If engineers could get the probe to flip the switch back, that might fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Testing out this solution, however, was risky, because it first required turning the primary thrusters on, then flipping the switch and restarting the heaters. With the long-dormant thrusters operating, they were at risk of automatically firing if Voyager 1 moved too far from its guiding star. If this happened while the heaters were still off, it could result in an explosion. In other words, the engineers needed to keep the star tracker pointed as closely as possible to the guiding star while working.<\/p>\n

As if that wasn\u2019t dramatic enough, it currently takes around 23 hours for scientists\u2019 command to reach Voyager 1, and then another 23 hours for the probe\u2019s response to return to Earth. The team thus had to wait around two days to see if their approach had worked. If it hadn\u2019t, they wouldn\u2019t receive that message until 23 hours after their command might have already caused serious damage.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, after the team sent their command in March, Voyager 1 reported a strong rise in the thruster heaters\u2019 temperatures\u2014a sign of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It\u2019s just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable,\u201d Barber says in the statement. \u201cIt was yet another miracle save for Voyager.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a team has had to scramble to keep a Voyager spacecraft alive. Given the mission\u2019s unexpected longevity, NASA scientists and engineers must continuously mitigate age-related maintenance problems on the probes, per Space.com<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Samantha Mathewson.<\/p>\n

Last fall, for instance, engineers briefly lost touch with Voyager 1 when it turned off its primary radio transmitter to save power. Instead, the probe reconnected with NASA using a backup transmitter<\/a> that hadn\u2019t been used in more than four decades. Voyager 1 also spent months sending incomprehensible data<\/a> back to Earth, until NASA teams figured out a fix<\/a>. Voyager 2 is not immune from these issues\u2014it also dropped communication with NASA<\/a> for some time in 2023.<\/p>\n

Teams have begun shutting off certain instruments on the probes to preserve power. By doing so, NASA suggests<\/a> the two spacecraft will be able to operate with at least one instrument into the next decade. Even once they lose power and the ability to communicate with scientists back on Earth, however, the probes will continue to silently travel away from our planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of sun or wind or anything that\u2019s going to wear them down, they could easily outlast us\u2014our entire civilization, outlast our planet,\u201d Jim Bell<\/a>, an Arizona State University planetary scientist and author of the book, The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission<\/em>, told Scientific American<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Clara Moskowitz in 2015. \u201cThe Earth will eventually be swallowed by the sun and the Voyagers could still be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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