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Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

cnn.com

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Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#41

Post by WJW »

lordnacho wrote: post #26

How is it possible to still be able to get a signal from a spacecraft that's so far away? How can the antenna be directional enough while still being pointed right at the Earth? How do we remove the noise?

Signal processing algorithms can pull out a signal from well below the noise floor these days. Even the small and nondirectional antennas on your phone are good enough to receive GPS signals even all the way down at -125 dBm, which is WAY less than your phone receives in interference from random radio stations and faulty LED bulbs nearby.

The tech used to receive Voyager signals is not really different, just more sensitive and sophisticated (and expensive).

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#42

Post by TrackerFF »

lordnacho wrote: post #26

How is it possible to still be able to get a signal from a spacecraft that's so far away? How can the antenna be directional enough while still being pointed right at the Earth? How do we remove the noise?

The communication bands (X- and S-band, which are the microwave range) are pretty well regulated, so they aren't that noisy, relative to other bands.

And on the receiving end, we have decent arrays of antennas to pick up the signals.

Here's a nifty document detailing the coms of Voyager: https://voyager.gsfc.nasa.gov/Library/DeepCommo_Chapter3--14...

Fig 3-4 on page 46 (page 10 in the document) shows the signal flow.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#43

Post by passwordoops »

pjot wrote: post #6

Voyager 1 is so far away that it takes 22.5 hours for commands sent from Earth to reach the spacecraft. Additionally, the team must wait 45 hours to receive a response. I’m guessing “hotfix” commits don’t exist in this domain

"Tepidfix" if I were on the team. But that's probably why I'm not on the team...

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#44

Post by bmitc »

mongol wrote: post #36
bmitc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communication means an exchange of information. Receiving a signal does not.

We receive information that its radios are still working.

Communication is exchange of information.

The sun is not communicating with us, and we know its "radio" is still working.

It's a pedantic, and incorrect, argument against the headline. The guidelines actually say not to do this, even when you're right.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#46

Post by chmod775 »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #30
huytersd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't think you should use the phrase "viscerally hyperbolic", I think it overstates the degree to which their comment communicates an excess of emotion. Instead, consider saying "I don't hate it, but I don't love it" to express agreement with the sentiment, but disagreement with the degree.

Perhaps the phrase "I don't hate it, but I don't love it" doesn’t fully encapsulate the nuanced spectrum of emotional response. Might I suggest employing "I harbor a moderate degree of equivocation regarding this matter"? It articulates a position of neither fervent advocacy nor staunch opposition, akin to balancing on the fulcrum of a metaphorical teeter-totter, oscillating gently between the poles of approval and disapproval.

(I think ChatGPT has you all beat)

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#47

Post by lima »

WJW wrote: post #41
lordnacho wrote: post #26

How is it possible to still be able to get a signal from a spacecraft that's so far away? How can the antenna be directional enough while still being pointed right at the Earth? How do we remove the noise?

Signal processing algorithms can pull out a signal from well below the noise floor these days. Even the small and nondirectional antennas on your phone are good enough to receive GPS signals even all the way down at -125 dBm, which is WAY less than your phone receives in interference from random radio stations and faulty LED bulbs nearby. The tech used to receive Voyager signals is not really different, just more sen…

Slightly larger antennas, too.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#48

Post by lukeschlather »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #14
malfist wrote: post #9

This is an absolutely terrible headline. Voyager is communicating with Earth, full stop. The data from it's scientific instruments is coming back in a fixed, repeating pattern, meaning we aren't getting anything meaningful from it, but it is absolutely still communicating with Earth.

No, it’s an accurate headline for the general population. It’s sending nothing useful.

It's the most distant transmitter we're receiving anything from. Just the signal itself is useful and communicates that the probe is still powered.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#49

Post by WJW »

gmuslera wrote: post #38

Vger will come back, eventually.

It would be cool if we eventually develop the technology to send out a probe to go out there and fetch the Voyager probes, so that we can put them in a museum.

(Presumably with one of the siblings of the fetching probe going further and faster than the Voyager probes ever managed)

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#50

Post by passwordoops »

smitty1110 wrote: post #3

A less alarmist and clickbait article can be found here: https://www.popsci.com/science/voyager-computer-issue/ NASA press release here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/12/12/engineers-working-... TL;DR - Voyager is sending back bad data, they're working on it.

Thank you. Didn't want to tap a CNN link for anything involving science

P.s. I also wouldn't go to Fox, before you think this is left/right bias. My bias is against regular media reporting on anything scientific. It's either rendered alarmist, so simplified it's wrong, or some combination of the two

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