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Voyager 1 phones home with transmitter that hasn't been used since 1981
The backup radio transmitter has remained dormant for about 43 years.
This was triggered by a command sent on Oct. 16 from NASA's Deep Space Network(DSN) — a global array of giant radio antennas — instructing the spacecraft to turn on one of its heaters. The spacecraft's fault protection system is believed to have been triggered twice more, ultimately causing it to switch to the S-band radio transmitter, which, prior to that date, hadn't been used since 1981. While spacecraft's advanced age and distance from Earth can make maintenance challenging, Voyager 1 continues to return vital data from beyond the solar system.
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