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White to move and mate in two #386. Voyager 2 cannot call home. [1]

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Date: 2023-08-01  

Earth has temporarily lost contact with the NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft. Apparently, a series of planned commands were sent to the spacecraft on July 21, which inadvertently caused its antenna to point away by 2°. NASA can no longer send commands or receive data from Voyager 2 via its Deep Space Network (DSN) station in Canberra, Australia.

Mistakes happen and good designs even anticipate them. Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation periodically to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct 15, which should restore communications. blogs.nasa.gov/...

The two Voyager spacecraft have been traveling in space for close to 46 years. Their power levels have dropped by about 50%, various instruments have been selectively shut off, yet the spacecraft continue to keep on going and going, sending back valuable science data from interstellar space.

Here are the locations and some vital stats on the two Voyager spacecraft, which were launched on Sept 5, 1977 and Aug 20, 1977 resp.

Only the DSN site in Canberra can see Voyager 2

www.nasa.gov/...

Now let’s solve today’s high-flying puzzle, which was composed by Comins Mansfield (British composer famous for Mate-in-two chess puzzles) in 1977, a month before the launch of the Voyager spacecraft.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/1/2184462/-White-to-move-and-mate-in-two-386-Voyager-2-cannot-call-home

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