After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, the only human-made object in interstellar space.

“With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Chris Jones, Robert Shotwell, Carl Guernsey and Todd Barber made up the team of experts that managed this incredible feat.

They dug up decades of old data and reworked the software of the craft, originally coded in Assembler, one of the most primitive developing languages out there.

The ultimate test was performed this past November NASA’s engineers fired up the four thrusters and patiently waited 19 hours for the results to be transmitted back to Earth.

Amazingly, the test was successful, and the four backup thrusters that were dormant since the 1980s are now alive and kicking.

https://www.techly.com.au/2018/03/21/nasa-just-found-way-fire-voyager-1s-thrusters-37-years-inactivity/

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, the only human-made object in interstellar space.

“With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Chris Jones, Robert Shotwell, Carl Guernsey and Todd Barber made up the team of experts that managed this incredible feat.

They dug up decades of old data and reworked the software of the craft, originally coded in Assembler, one of the most primitive developing languages out there.

The ultimate test was performed this past November NASA’s engineers fired up the four thrusters and patiently waited 19 hours for the results to be transmitted back to Earth.

Amazingly, the test was successful, and the four backup thrusters that were dormant since the 1980s are now alive and kicking.

https://www.techly.com.au/2018/03/21/nasa-just-found-way-fire-voyager-1s-thrusters-37-years-inactivity/

“originally coded in Assembler, one of the most primitive developing languages out there.”

That’s poorly explained. Assembly is mainly just a mnemonic code for a particular microprocessors machine code.

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

Good question.

And were they fired to speed it up, slow it down, change its course or what?

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

In order to transmit information to Earth and receive instructions, Voyager 1 must be able to orient itself. The craft incurs an external torque due to dust, gas, and light, so keeping it oriented requires thrusters. Normally, the attitude control thrusters (specifically designed for this task) are used, but they are going to run out of propellent. These back-up thrusters will allow a few more years of attitude correction.

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

In order to transmit information to Earth and receive instructions, Voyager 1 must be able to orient itself. The craft incurs an external torque due to dust, gas, and light, so keeping it oriented requires thrusters. Normally, the attitude control thrusters (specifically designed for this task) are used, but they are going to run out of propellent. These back-up thrusters will allow a few more years of attitude correction.

Ta. It wouldn’t have hurt for him to explain these things in the article.

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

After almost 40 years of inactivity, NASA engineers have managed to fire up the backup thrusters of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

Good question.

And were they fired to speed it up, slow it down, change its course or what?

I wonder if there’s a paper or press release on that somewhere. Wait on. The life extension is due to better attitude control. If Voyager’s attitude gets too obnoxious then it will refuse to talk to Earth.

NASA scientists have been using Voyager’s thrusters all along to keep Voyager pointed the right way. But the thrusters that are being used have been degrading, they require more and more fuel to keep Voyager heading in the right direction.

So it’s not for speed up, slow down, or course correction. It’s for keeping its antenna pointed at Earth. And the advantage is of only a few years because eventually Voyager will run out of fuel.

mollwollfumble said:

Bubblecar said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Surely NASA could have found something else for their engineers to work on over the past 40 years.

Apart from that, how does having these thrusters work extend the life, and how come only for a few years?

Good question.

And were they fired to speed it up, slow it down, change its course or what?

I wonder if there’s a paper or press release on that somewhere. Wait on. The life extension is due to better attitude control. If Voyager’s attitude gets too obnoxious then it will refuse to talk to Earth.

NASA scientists have been using Voyager’s thrusters all along to keep Voyager pointed the right way. But the thrusters that are being used have been degrading, they require more and more fuel to keep Voyager heading in the right direction.

So it’s not for speed up, slow down, or course correction. It’s for keeping its antenna pointed at Earth. And the advantage is of only a few years because eventually Voyager will run out of fuel.

So basically what dv said, but you get a star for the explanatory documentation :)