By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On October 13, 2023
The Universe of Emerging Markets: What service contractors can learn from the Voyager mission
On July 21, NASA temporarily lost contact with Voyager 2, one of its most famous spacecraft.
On July 21, NASA temporarily lost contact with Voyager 2, one of its most famous spacecraft. Launched on Aug. 20, 1977, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Voyager 2—now over 12.3 billion miles away—has been in continuous service for 46 years.
After investigating the four outermost planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—for 12 years, Voyager 2 headed out into the vastness of interstellar space.
Voyager 2 is now so far away that each signal from JPL takes 18.5 hours to reach the craft, and vice versa. Round-trip for a conversation takes 37 hours.
Back in July, the team discovered a mistake in the instructions they were about to send to Voyager 2. However, they inadvertently transmitted that incorrect signal, causing the space probe’s earthward-pointing antenna to shift 2 degrees, enough to cut off communication.
The JPL team decided on a brute-force solution: colleagues at a NASA affiliate in Australia beamed the strongest radio signal it could muster—an interstellar “shout”—to Voyager 2. The solution worked.
This short-lived, panic-stricken episode demonstrated five great lessons for service-oriented electrical contractors intent on exploring emerging markets here on terra firma.
1. There’s no substitute for firsthand investigation.
Voyager 1 and 2 space probes were launched separately in the summer of 1977 to learn about the gas giant planets. They did, sending back data that would provide the basis for rewriting astronomy textbooks. ECs exploring emerging markets will never fully comprehend their inherent possibilities without a firsthand look.
The Voyager mission revealed such unexpected planetary phenomena as volcanoes on one of Jupiter’s moons by going on a tour of the solar system. Likewise, service-oriented contractors should expect the unexpected as they personally visit customers.