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Are the Voyager probes still sending signals back to Earth?

Gingerbread Demon

Yelling at the Vorlons
Premium Member
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I mean if you look beyond the clickbait title it is interesting. Are the probes actually sending back data or is this some system error thing but we are picking up the signal back home?
 
They're still getting data from both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Voyager 1's data seems to be a bit scrambled although not enough for the spacecraft to go into "safe mode." It's receiving and executing commands from Earth (although with a one-way delay of 20.5 hours to travel the 14.5 billion miles/23.3 billion kilometers) and the signal strength indicates the Attitude Articulation and Control System is working. The thing is 45 years-old and has been exposed to all sorts of radiation. They still have some backup hardware they can switch to. In 2017, they went to thrusters used for planetary encounters that hadn't been used for 37 years but worked like they should.

Voyager 2 seems to be functioning normally.

While NASA has had some major screw ups, they're successes are outstanding.
 
They're still getting data from both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Voyager 1's data seems to be a bit scrambled although not enough for the spacecraft to go into "safe mode." It's receiving and executing commands from Earth (although with a one-way delay of 20.5 hours to travel the 14.5 billion miles/23.3 billion kilometers) and the signal strength indicates the Attitude Articulation and Control System is working. The thing is 45 years-old and has been exposed to all sorts of radiation. They still have some backup hardware they can switch to. In 2017, they went to thrusters used for planetary encounters that hadn't been used for 37 years but worked like they should.

Voyager 2 seems to be functioning normally.

While NASA has had some major screw ups, they're successes are outstanding.


And just think, a bit of research and the op could have found this out themselves.
 
You can see data coming in at JPL

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Of course, Anton Petrov has produced an excellent video about this:

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Voyager 1's RTG's are expected to no longer be able to deliver enough power as of around 2025 IIRC..
 
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