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What are they using the thrusters for at this time? Just attitude adjustment to get the antenna pointed at the Earth?
by iwwr 15y ago
What are they using the thrusters for at this time? Just attitude adjustment to get the antenna pointed at the Earth?
- wglb 15y agoFirst sentence of linked article: NASA's Deep Space Network personnel sent commands to the Voyager 2 spacecraft Nov. 4 to switch to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThe Voyagers are 3-axis stabilized (vs spin stabilized) and they use the thrusters for attitude control. Without the thrusters the antenna would drift away from being pointed at Earth and we'd lose contact. More modern spacecraft use non-propulsive systems such as momentum wheels and gyrodines to maintain 3-axis attitude control and use thrusters to reset only when those systems become saturated.