The USA unraveled a very interesting occurrence on Tuesday, August 1, when Nasa's distant Voyager 2 probe sent a "heartbeat" signal to Earth after mission control unexpectedly cut contact. The intriguing part about Voyager 1 and 2 is that these space probes were packed in aluminium before being sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
In 1977, Voyager Mission was launched to explore outer planets and represent humanity to the universe. It is currently more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometres) away from Earth and has left the solar system.
The Voyager Golden records were gold plated by James G. Lee record-processing centre in Gardena, California, before they were attached to aluminium containers and sent to JPL for final scrutiny. The records are made of gold-plated copper, but for protection, they were covered by aluminium, a quite common non-ferrous metal used in space projects. Lastly, the aluminium containers were coated with the premium most variant of the isotope uranium-238.
Unfortunately, a series of planned commands accidentally caused the antenna to point two degrees away from Earth, which left it unable to transmit data or receive commands. The team then reached out to the Deep Space Network for help, and they were surprised to receive a successful response indicating that the spacecraft was alive and operating.
The team is now generating a new command to attempt to point the spacecraft antenna back towards Earth, but the probability of success is low. Despite this, NASA will continue sending commands until October 15, when an automated re-orientation manoeuvre is scheduled.
Voyager 2 carries a "Golden Record" that includes symbolic instructions on how to play it, a map of the solar system, and a piece of uranium that serves as a radioactive clock. Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium in 2012 and is currently almost 15 billion miles away from Earth.
If you are passionate about the aluminium industry and wish to learn more about it, please have a look at AL Circle's aluminium industry report.
Responses
