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While we were not watching, the Voyager 1 spacecraft underwent another surgery.

In August, V1 switched thrusters used for orientation control, because the fuel tubes in the thrusters had clogged up with residue.

To perform the switch, the thrusters had to be warmed by turning on its heaters while turning off another set for an hour.

All very tricky and risky operations, performed from 22.8 light-hours away on 1970’s era hardware.

Kudos again to the Voyager team.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/09/10/voyager-1-team-accomplishes-tricky-thruster-swap/
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Voyager 1 Team Accomplishes Tricky Thruster Swap – Voyager

blogs.nasa.gov
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

AkaSci 🛰️
AkaSci 🛰️
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Both Voyager probes are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert heat from decaying plutonium Pu-238 into electricity using thermocouples.

In 47 years, power levels have dropped by over 50%. Many instruments and heaters have been turned off.

The thrusters enabled in August were cold and had to be warmed up before turning on. One of the main heaters in the spacecraft was turned off for 1 hour, since it was risky to turn off any other subsystem.
👏

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AkaSci 🛰️ reshared this.

in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

AkaSci 🛰️
AkaSci 🛰️
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Voyager uses Hydrazine thrusters for attitude (orientation) control, not gyros or momentum wheels.

There is enough Hydrazine to last until 2040 for V1 and 2048 for V2. But more likely, fuel line clogging and loss of power will end the mission in the 2030s.

The spacecraft contains 2 sets (branches) of 6 attitude propulsion thrusters and one set of 4 trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters. In Aug, V1 switched from the TCM set to a previously used set.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19810001583/downloads/19810001583.pdf
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in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Mikal with a k
Mikal with a k
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This is all vastly more interesting than that other thing that seems to be clogging the timeline at the moment.
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Tursilion
Tursilion
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I'm so jealous that the Voyager team gets to work with retro hardware and get paid for it, instead of just for fun. ;)
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

nicki xaphania mouse 🐁
nicki xaphania mouse 🐁
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without the thrusters, it would no longer be able to orient the antenna towards earth and so we'd lose contact, hence mission end, is this correct?
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Nebil Arega
Nebil Arega
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My 4 AM brain read it as light years, and I thought worm holes 🤔. Cool article
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Tom
Tom
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the Voyager program is really a modern cathedral project. Whole careers have been spent devoted to this work. An entire generation has worked on it at this point, handing off to successors who may well see their grandkids taking up the work.
Amazing
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Attac Ostfriesland
Attac Ostfriesland
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Wohwww
und währenddessen vernichten wir uns gegenseitig mit modernster Technik auf unserm Heimatplaneten in Ukraine, Sudan, Nahost,....

unbegreiflich

Bravo #NASA und #Daumendrück #Voyager, Heldin meiner Kindhei!

#nasa #voyager #daumendruck
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
• •
every once in a while Humanity does something incredible, and most of the planet barely notices
in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

TransitBiker
TransitBiker
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I was watching a YouTube video on the voyager spacecraft a few days ago and it is absolutely mind-boggling how robust these two machines are. The teams that worked on these two envoys to the cosmos really knew what they were doing.
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