Washington, December 5: The researchers at NASA just beamed a message 13 billion miles into space, to the only man-made object outside our solar system – and got a response.
The Voyager 1 spacecraft has been flying since last 40 years, and NASA’s signal told that the craft to fire its backup thrusters – which was not used for last 37 years.
They worked perfectly, allowing the spacecraft to reorient itself so it can continue to communicate with Earth.
“As these thrusters 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,” Suzanne Dodd, NASA’s project manager said.
According to a report, since last three years, engineers noticed that the thristers Voyager 1 was used to orient the spacecraft which was degraded.
At 13 billion miles from Earth, there’s no mechanic shop nearby to get a tune-up.
Experts in NASA agreed on an unusual solution: Try giving the job of orientation to a set of thrusters that had been asleep for last 37 years.
During the early days of the mission, Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, Saturn and important moons of each.
Last week, experts learned that the TCM thrusters worked perfectly fine. The test went so well, that the team will also do a similar test on the TCM thrusters for Voyager 2, the twin spacecraft of Voyager 1.
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