旅行者2號(hào)克服了故障，返回星際空間收集科學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)

旅行者2號(hào)克服了故障，返回星際空間收集科學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)

On January 25, interstellar spacecraft Voyager 2 encountered a problem during a maneuver that led to some of its science instruments being turned off. Now the engineering team has restored its operation – despite it being the most distant human-made object in space – and this veteran of space exploration is back collecting science data.

星際飛船旅行者2號(hào)1月25日,在操作時(shí)遇到了一個(gè)問(wèn)題,導(dǎo)致一些科學(xué)儀器被關(guān)閉?，F(xiàn)在工程團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)恢復(fù)了其操作——盡管它是在太空和太空探索的經(jīng)驗(yàn)中收集科學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)的最遙遠(yuǎn)的人造物體。

Alfredo Carpineti

The mishap happened when Voyager 2 failed to do a barrel roll. This 360-degree rotation is used regularly to recalibrate the magnetic field instrument on board but for some reason, the maneuver did not start. This delay left two systems to consume a high level of power, causing the craft to overdraw its power supply, so the fault protection software kicked in and shut down the science instruments to make sure nothing would be damaged.

不幸的是，旅行者2號(hào)沒(méi)有“滾桶”。這種360度旋轉(zhuǎn)是用來(lái)定期重新校準(zhǔn)船上的磁場(chǎng)儀器，但由于某種原因，機(jī)動(dòng)沒(méi)有開(kāi)始。這一延遲導(dǎo)致兩個(gè)系統(tǒng)消耗了大量電力，導(dǎo)致飛船的電力供應(yīng)透支，于是故障保護(hù)軟件啟動(dòng)并關(guān)閉了科學(xué)儀器，以確保沒(méi)有任何東西會(huì)被損壞。

Voyager 2 is located 18.5 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) away. It takes light 17 hours to reach the spacecraft, so any communication back and forth has a delay of almost a day and a half. But thanks to the prompt intervention of the mission team, by January 28 one of the high-power systems was shut off, and regular work had resumed by February 5.

旅行者2號(hào)位于185億公里(110億英里)之外。光到達(dá)航天器需要17個(gè)小時(shí)，所以任何來(lái)回的通信都有將近一天半的延遲。但由于特派團(tuán)的迅速干預(yù)，1月28日一個(gè)大功率系統(tǒng)被關(guān)閉，2月5日恢復(fù)正常工作。

Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 on a trip that took it to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. After that, it continued to travel faster and faster towards the edge of the Solar System, finally crossing the boundary into interstellar space in December 2018, becoming only the second spacecraft ever to do so after its twin Voyager 1.

旅行者2號(hào)是在1977年發(fā)射的，當(dāng)時(shí)它訪問(wèn)了木星、土星、天王星和海王星。在那之后，它繼續(xù)以越來(lái)越快的速度向太陽(yáng)系邊緣移動(dòng)，最終在2018年12月越過(guò)邊界進(jìn)入星際空間，成為繼孿生旅行者1號(hào)之后第二艘這樣做的航天器。

The Voyager probes' power supply comes from a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). When a radioactive element decays, it releases heat and this can be turned into electricity to power a spacecraft, or a rover like NASA’s Curiosity on Mars. And while it is a pretty durable power source, it is not designed to last forever.

旅行者號(hào)探測(cè)器的電源來(lái)自一個(gè)放射性同位素?zé)犭姲l(fā)生器(RTG)。當(dāng)一種放射性元素衰變時(shí)，它會(huì)釋放熱量，這些熱量可以轉(zhuǎn)化為電能，為宇宙飛船或美國(guó)宇航局(NASA)的“好奇號(hào)”(Curiosity)火星探測(cè)器提供動(dòng)力。雖然它是一種相當(dāng)耐用的能源，但并不是設(shè)計(jì)來(lái)永久使用的。

The RTG is used to power instruments and keep the craft warm enough that it can continue to maneuver and communicate with Earth, but every year it loses a bit more power – roughly 4 watts per year. As the power begins to dwindle, sacrifices have been made to keep the mission going. Last year, the primary heater for the cosmic ray subsystem instrument was turned off to compensate for this power loss, although the instrument continues to operate. The same goes for the ultraviolet spectrometer, the heater of which was turned off in 2012 to reduce power consumption, and yet it is still extremely sturdy.

輪胎式龍門(mén)吊用于電力設(shè)備和工藝保暖,可以繼續(xù)操作,與地球通信,但每年會(huì)失去更多的電力——大約每年4瓦。隨著電力開(kāi)始減少,為繼續(xù)完成任務(wù)，只能做出一定的犧牲。去年,宇宙射線子系統(tǒng)的主要加熱儀器處于關(guān)機(jī)狀態(tài),以彌補(bǔ)這個(gè)功率損耗,雖然儀器繼續(xù)操作。同樣適用于紫外分光計(jì),2012年關(guān)閉的加熱器減少電力消耗,然而它仍然是非常堅(jiān)固的。

Although it's thought the Voyagers' power sources will run out by the mid-2020s, Voyager 2 wasn't going to let a little setback like this glitch stop it from continuing to explore the space between the stars until then.

盡管人們認(rèn)為旅行者2號(hào)的能源將在21世紀(jì)20年代中期耗盡，但旅行者2號(hào)在此之前不會(huì)讓像這個(gè)小故障這樣的小挫折阻止它繼續(xù)探索星際空間。