On April 20th 2020, after inappropriately being offline for weeks, experts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) detected a faint signal that indicated that Voyager 2, our spacecraft that has been making its way through interstellar space for over four decades, was still alive and well.
Voyager 2 has been exploring our solar system and beyond since 1977. This past March, the spacecraft unexpectedly switched to an alternate low-power state. For nearly a month, it stayed offline without story or explanation. This worried the team from JPL who worked on the Voyager programs, meaning the two interplanetary probes sent forth in search of the unknown.
In a heartwarming announcement on April 20th, NASA declared that Voyager 2 was still functioning in space. After sending out a signal to awaken the spacecraft, the mission control team received a faint response indicating that the craft received the command. This response was referred to as a “heartbeat” since it was a sign of life from the nearly 43-year-old space exploration craft.
The mission control team at JPL declared the mission a success, and announced that Voyager 2 had sent an updated status report back to Earth, identifying its current state as Nominal 1. This meant the craft was functioning in its normal operating state.
The fortunate news means that the spacecraft is continuing its interstellar journey and is likely to reach the edge of our solar system in the next few years. According to NASA scientists, Voyager 2 is expected to leave the heliosheath — the outermost layer of the bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding our solar system — and enter interstellar space sometime in 2021.
The responsibility of sending these probes far into space remains critical to understanding the universe. With him mission of Voyager 2 still functioning, we have the opportunity to make new space discoveries based on the Voyager programs research.
In conclusion, the spacecraft Voyager 2 has proven to still be well after NASA inadvertently lost contact with it. Mission control at JPL has declared the mission a success by receiving the faint signal from the spacecraft indicating it was still alive. The spacecraft will likely reach the edge of our solar system soon, giving it the opportunity to continue its interstellar journey and make new space discoveries.
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