May 20th 2025
AI-generated, human-edited.
In the latest episode of This Week in Space, hosts Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discussed what they called another "Energizer moment" for the veteran Voyager 1 spacecraft, which continues to defy expectations nearly half a century after its launch. The engineering feat ensures the interstellar explorer can maintain its communication with Earth during upcoming maintenance to NASA's Deep Space Network.
An Interstellar Road Trip Precaution
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is currently traveling through interstellar space approximately 15 billion miles from Earth. For the past 21 years, the spacecraft has relied on only one set of roll control thrusters to maintain its orientation—critical for keeping its antenna pointed toward Earth to transmit scientific data back home.
With planned upgrades coming to the Deep Space Network's primary antenna used to communicate with Voyager, NASA engineers wanted to ensure the spacecraft had backup systems available. As Pyle explained in the podcast, there had been concerns about "fuel line pressure and build-up and corrosion" in the primary thrusters, making the backup systems potentially vital.
Engineering Ingenuity Extends a Legacy
The NASA team achieved what they themselves described as a "miracle save" by devising a workaround for what were thought to be dead thrusters. According to the hosts, the solution involved creating alternative switching methods on some of the spacecraft's computer boards.
"They just thought, you know what, let's try to see what we can do. We thought these were dead thrusters, let's see if we can figure out a way around it," Malik noted. "And it sounds like they did it."
48 Years and Still Going
This remarkable achievement adds to the legendary status of the Voyager mission, which continues to operate well beyond its expected lifespan. At 48 years old, Voyager 1 remains humanity's most distant functioning spacecraft, still sending back scientific data from the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.
The hosts compared the preparation for the antenna maintenance to getting ready for a road trip: "You want to make sure that you have all your supplies, all your fuel... ready to go, that the car is in good shape." NASA's successful thruster reactivation ensures that Voyager 1 can remain properly oriented and continue its historic mission while the Deep Space Network undergoes its necessary upgrades.
For space enthusiasts and the scientific community alike, this engineering success represents yet another remarkable chapter in one of humanity's greatest exploratory achievements.
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