Amateur astronomers receive signals from Voyager 1
Amateurs managed to receive signals from Voyager 1 using a converted historical radio telescope. This was made possible by a technical problem with the probe.
Dutch amateur astronomers were temporarily able to receive its signals: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.
Using the historic Dwingeloo radio telescope, amateur astronomers near a Dutch village of the same name have succeeded in briefly receiving signals from NASA's Voyager 1 space probe. This was made possible by an additional antenna installed on the telescope and an alternative transmitter that the Voyager temporarily used for contact with Earth.
Due to the distance of Voyager 1, the signals were very weak: almost 25 billion kilometers separate it from Earth, which is almost five times as much as the dwarf planet Pluto. According to the German Aerospace Center, the distance here is around five billion kilometers.
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Additional antenna installed
To ensure the necessary reception, the astronomers mounted an additional antenna on the radio telescope, which is actually designed for lower frequencies than those of Voyager 1. At these higher frequencies, the antenna's network reflects less, making it particularly difficult to receive weak signals.
To find the very weak carrier signal in the noise, the team used Voyager 1's orbit predictions to correct for the Doppler shift in frequency caused by the motion of the Earth and Voyager 1. As a result, their signal could be seen live in the telescope's observation room at times. The group has published some images on their website.
Technical problem with Voyager 1
All this was only possible because of a temporary technical problem on board the probe. In mid-October, NASA had sent Voyager the order to activate a heater on board. As a result, the probe did not report back on the usual frequency in the X-band. Later, another signal was detected in the S-band, which is reserved for a low-power transmitter. NASA then announced the explanation for this at the end of November: The probe had detected increased power consumption due to the heating and then automatically switched to the other transmitter.
Voyager 1 has been in orbit since 1977 and is powered by three radionuclide batteries, which supply around four watts less each year. As a result, systems have been gradually switched off for years, and many of the measuring instruments on board have long since stopped supplying data. Nevertheless, the power reserves are extremely low, so that even slightly different predictions of power consumption can have such major consequences.
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Communication was not possible
The amateur astronomers in Dwingeloo must therefore have received the signals between mid-October and the end of November. However, they make it clear that they never had the opportunity to send their own signals to Voyager 1. NASA uses antennas that are significantly larger than those of the old radio telescope. Nevertheless, it is probably one of the late highlights in the history of the old radio telescope. Construction was completed in 1956, at which time the single-dish radio telescope was the largest in the world with a diameter of 25 meters. It has not been in operation since 2000 and has been a Dutch industrial monument since 2009. After restoration in 2012, the CA Muller Radio Astronomy Foundation put it back into operation in collaboration with the owner.
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