NASA optimistic about resolving Voyager 1 computer problem

A NASA official says he is optimistic that a problem with the Voyager 1 spacecraft that has kept it from transmitting intelligible data for months can be resolved. Speaking at a March 20 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Solar and Space Physics, Joseph Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, said it appeared possible to fix the computer problem on the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft that has disrupted operations since last November. “I feel like we’re on a path now to resolution,” he said. “They’re on the right path and I think we’re going to get to a point where Voyager 1 is going to continue, alive and kicking in space.” Spacecraft controllers first noticed a problem with the spacecraft in November, when the data transmitted by the spacecraft was unusable. Engineers concluded that the problem was with an onboard computer called the flight data system (FDS), which collects data from the spacecraft’s instruments and other spacecraft telemetry. Several factors have hampered efforts to correct the problem. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now more than 24 billion kilometers from Earth, which means it takes 22.5 hours for signals to travel between Earth and the spacecraft. None of the people who developed the FDS in the early to mid 1970s are available to assist now, so the project has had to turn to documentation to help identify the problem.

NASA is optimistic engineers can fix the computer problem that has kept Voyager 1 from transmitting usable data for months. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA announced March 13 progress in fixing the FDS when a command called a “poke” was transmitted to Voyager, and the spacecraft responded by sending back a readout of its memory. The agency said at the time it will compare that readout to one transmitted before the problem to help identify the issue.

Westlake said at the committee meeting that the problem appears to be a corrupted memory unit on the spacecraft. “It’s a part failure on one of the memories and they’re looking for a way to move a couple hundred words of software from one region to another in the flight computer,” he said. A word is two bytes.

He did not estimate how long it would take to make those software changes. NASA, in its latest statement about the spacecraft, said that using the FDS memory readout “to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time.”

Defense Innovation Unit awards three contracts for space logistics technologies

The Pentagon’s commercial technology arm, the Defense Innovation Unit, announced March 20 it is funding three projects to explore ways to create a more robust space infrastructure that can support military operations beyond low Earth orbit. The projects were awarded to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and Spacebilt. “Each of the companies selected for an award showed strong research and development investments into their particular solutions for use in the commercial market,” said DIU. DIU is partnering with Blue Origin on a space mission called Dark-Sky 1 that will send to orbit a heavy multi-orbit space tug based on the company’s Blue Ring platform. The vehicle will be launched as a rideshare payload on a U.S. Space Force national security mission. Dark-Sky 1 is jointly funded by DIU and Blue Origin. “This effort will be ready for launch in July of this year,” a DIU spokesperson told SpaceNews. “Blue Origin is in the final stages of developing the Dark-Sky 1 mission system, which will demonstrate core mission operation and flight system capabilities.” “The lessons learned from this DS-1 mission will provide a leap forward for Blue Ring and its ability to provide greater access to multiple orbits,” said Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems.

Blue Origin says its Blue Ring orbital transfer vehicle will be able to host more than 3,000 kilograms of payload, operating in Earth orbit through cislunar space. Credit: Blue Origin

On-orbit refueling, manufacturing

Another contract jointly funded by DIU and Space Force is for in-space refueling technologies from Space Logistics, Northrop Grumman’s in-space servicing subsidiary. The government is funding integration of the company’s Active Refueling Moule (ARM) and Passive Refueling Module (PRM) in military spacecraft. These are interfaces to enable docking and transferring of fuel. The PRM will fly on a Space Force operational mission and will be integrated on the company’s new servicing vehicle, called Mission Robotics Vehicle.

A third contract was awarded to reusable spacecraft manufacturer Spacebilt, previously known as Skycorp. DIU wants to validate the company’s approach and methods for in-space assembly and manufacturing for DoD use cases.

“Since award, Spacebilt has progressed toward a mass manufacturable product, conducted risk reduction missions to the International Space Station for their flight hardware, and maturity of their commercially available avionics hardware,” DIU said.

Spacebilt is targeting a late 2026 launch of its multi-orbit logistics vehicle that is launched in a protective container and assembled on orbit.

Established in 2015, DIU acts as a bridge between the Department of Defense and the commercial tech sector. It identifies promising technologies with potential military applications and streamlines the often-bureaucratic acquisition process.

Startical orders test satellites for air traffic surveillance and comms constellation

Spanish defense contractor Indra has teamed up with local air navigation services provider Enaire to order two satellites next year to test their proposed air traffic surveillance and communications constellation. Their joint venture, Startical, said March 18 it has ordered a 20-kilogram satellite from GomSpace and a 110-kilogram satellite from Kongsberg NanoAvionics — the first of more than 270 spacecraft planned for low Earth orbit. Startical said the GomSpace satellite would be deployed in early 2025, followed by NanoAvionics around the middle of the year, but did not disclose launch details. The company plans to test the performance of a receiver for tracking Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) signals from aircraft and a very high-frequency (VHF) radio system for improving pilot communications. Financial and technical details were not disclosed. “Our goal is to become the main global provider of air traffic management technology in the space segment and a market leader in satellite surveillance and voice and data communications services,” Startical CEO J. Enrique González Laguna said in a statement. Satellite operator Viasat seeks to improve airspace-tracking capabilities with its L-band satellites to complement currently congested VHF data links, as part of an air traffic modernization program with the European Space Agency.

NanoAvionics will base its satellite on its MP42 microsatellite bus, like the one pictured here. Credit: Konsberg NanoAvionics

According to ESA, fitting aircraft with higher-bandwidth communications would give air traffic controllers more data to schedule landings in advance, minimizing fuel consumption and maximizing airspace and airport capacity.

Viasat says communications between pilots and controllers using the Iris network could also move from voice to text messages for improved operational safety and efficiency.

Europe’s easyJet recently became the airline to use Iris commercially, Viasat announced Jan 29.

“Iris provides everything the industry needs to modernise Air Traffic Management today and is fully operational,” a Viasat spokesperson said via email.

The service is currently deployed in Europe through a group of 19 air navigation service providers, Viasat added, with more expected to join in the coming months.

Startical said its proposed VHF constellation would use the aeronautical radio communications band approved in December by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), part of the United Nations.

U.S.-based Aireon, which currently provides ADS-B surveillance services using hosted payloads on Iridium Communications’ low Earth orbit constellation, also announced plans March 7 to get a license for operating a space-based VHF system in the newly allocated spectrum band.

Space-based VHF holds particular promise for areas with limited connectivity or without ground infrastructure, Aireon said, such as remote regions and oceanic routes.

Like space-based ADS-B, Aireon said space-based VHF could help improve airspace safety, efficiency, and sustainability by reducing the distance between aircraft and more efficient routing.

“Space-based VHF has tremendous potential for the entire aviation industry,” Aireon CEO Don Thoma told SpaceNews via email, “and it will require investment of the entire industry to be successful. We are looking forward to seeing the results of Starticle’s first satellite launches.”

Thoma said Aireon has spent more than 10 years developing, deploying, and operating what is currently the only global space-based ADS-B system.

The company is looking to draw on this experience for its venture into space-based VHF, along with partners that include Iridium and air navigation services providers based in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and Denmark.

Mars Sample Return science continues amid budget uncertainty

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Efforts by scientists to use a Mars rover to collect samples are continuing even as NASA wraps up a new assessment of when and how those samples will be brought back to Earth. The Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has filled 26 of its 43 sample tubes, scientists involved with the mission said in presentations at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference (LPSC) here March 12. The rover is climbing up the remains of a river delta that once flowed into Jezero Crater. Of those 26 tubes, 20 contain rock cores, said Meenakshi Wadhwa, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University who serves as principal scientist for Mars Sample Return (MSR) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Two contain regolith and another holds a sample of the atmosphere, while the other three are “witness tubes” that serve as controls to identify any terrestrial contamination in the other tubes. Two of the remaining 17 tubes are also witness tubes, leaving 15 that can be filled with other samples. Scientists are planning next phases of the rover’s traverse, she said, such as to the crater rim, which promises what she called “an incredible diversity” of rocks of different ages and exposed to different processes, “including materials of astrobiological potential.” That work is ongoing as NASA enters the final phases of a review of the overall MSR architecture, including the schedule and design of the mission that will collect those sample tubes and return them to Earth. After an independent review board, or IRB, concluded that the agency’s existing approach could not meet cost and schedule goals, NASA commissioned an MSR IRB Response Team (MIRT) in October to evaluate alternative approaches.

A sample tube on the Martian surface in the shadow of the Perseverance rover. Perseverance is continuing to collect samples as NASA develops a new plan for returning them to Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Much of the work is already complete” by the MIRT, Wadhwa said. The MIRT is expected to complete its work by the end of the month, with NASA releasing its revised MSR plans, and proposed budget, as soon as April.

That has put not just MSR but also NASA’s overall planetary science portfolio in limbo. NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, released March 11, left MSR funding as TBD, or to be determined. At the same time, the agency must also develop an operating plan for fiscal year 2024 funding provided by an appropriations bill passed March 8 that instructed NASA to spend at least $300 million, and as much as $949.3 million, on MSR in 2024.

The TBD in the fiscal year 2025 budget request for MSR reflects the uncertainty about the plans for carrying out the program, said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, during a town hall meeting at LPSC March 11. “We’re trying to give the response team the time they need to complete their assessment and provide the recommendation,” she explained.

Once that work is done, NASA will amend its budget request to seek specific funding for MSR in 2025, but at the expense of the allocations requested for other planetary programs in the original proposal. “I do not expect the top level of the planetary budget to go up above the $2.73 billion” in the original request, she said, which is already fully allocated to other programs. “We need to think about how we support Mars Sample Return within a balanced planetary portfolio and within that $2.73 billion top line.”

NASA faces similar challenges for determining MSR funding in 2024 within the limits set by the appropriations bill. “This is going to be the heart of a very difficult process,” she said.

While providing little information about what the new MSR architecture, and its cost and schedule, will be, NASA officials at the conference reemphasized the scientific value of the program.

“Mars Sample Return is one of the highest priorities in the past two decadal surveys. It is an agency priority,” said Lindsay Hays, acting lead scientist for MSR at NASA Headquarters, during a March 12 presentation. The samples, she said, can serve as a “Rosetta Stone” to decode the early history of terrestrial planets.

Those officials acknowledged, though, the uncertainty about MSR was affecting science planning. That includes potential surveys beyond the crater rim by Perseverance to collect samples. “We’re awaiting to see what the MIRT results are,” Hays said. “The MIRT is going to help us understand what is our future architecture and future schedule.”

She added that “maximizing sample number and simple diversity is absolutely key” for the mission, a point Wadhwa also made.

“We are currently awaiting the outcome of the MIRT in terms of what the timeline is going to look like,” Wadhwa said, which will shape what kind of traverse Perseverance will take to collect additional samples at and beyond the crater rim. “We have an amazing set of rocks awaiting us in those regions.”

Crew-7 returns to Earth

A Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down early March 12, returning a multinational crew after more than six months of the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast from Pensacola, Florida, at 5:47 a.m. Eastern after a normal reentry. The spacecraft had undocked from the station more than 18 hours earlier. Endurance’s return marked then end of the 199-day Crew-7 mission, which launched last August. On board were NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. All four were out of the capsule less than an hour after splashdown. That post-splashdown recovery is among the fastest for the 12 Crew Dragon splashdowns to date. “The SpaceX team did a great job of getting the Dragon capsule out of the water and back on to the ship. They continue to get better and better,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, in a call with reporters. He said favorable weather conditions, with very light winds and calm seas, likely also contributed to the speedy recovery. The splashdown completed the third flight of Endurance, all long-duration ISS missions. Benji Reed, senior director for human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, noted at the briefing that the capsule has spent 534 days in space, more than any crew-rated vehicle in history.

The Crew Dragon capsule after splashdown on the Crew-7 mission. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Crew-7 departed the ISS nearly a week after the arrival of their replacements, Crew-8, on another Crew Dragon spacecraft named Endeavour. NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin will stay on the ISS for the next six months.

Endeavour, Reed added in the call, will overtake Endurance’s current record, with 476 days and counting in space. “The Dragons are a workhorse in the industry.”

The return of Crew-7 frees up a docking port on the station for a cargo Dragon mission, CRS-30, scheduled for launch later this month. That vehicle will remain docked to the station for a month before it returns to Earth. It will be followed by the first crewed flight by Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, now scheduled for early May.