NASA is sending a software update to the Voyager 2 spacecraft today!
Data will be sent at 16 bps with a 19 kW transmitter using the 70-m dish at DSN Canberra.
Distance: 20 billion km
Light travel time: 18:40 hours
The patch contains logic to recover from glitches similar to the one in May 2022, when the AACS system on Voyager 1 was sending garbled data. The root cause was not diagnosed. The patch will be activated on Oct 28. Voyager 2 will be next.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-team-focuses-on-software-patch-thrusters
#Voyager
1/n
@AkaSci Ah yes, that's my kind of bug fix. "The root cause was not diagnosed. Sending patch anyway."
@michaelgemar @aburka @AkaSci Indeed. This bug fix was originally demonstrated to be effective by Professor Turnonanov.
