To provide more information than the others who responded: typical sprinkler systems are not automatically activated in response to a fire alarm. Each sprinkler head has a small glass vial filled with a liquid, calibrated to break at a certain elevated temperature (e.g 160 or 180 F). The flow of water starts when the glass breaks. So there has to be a significant fire near the sprinkler before it activates.
One weakness is that the glass vial is fragile. In some hotels you’ll see signs reminding guests not to hang clothes from the sprinkler head, as a clothes hanger could break the vial and activate the water flow.
I don’t think they’re in trouble for missing the deorbit target.
The concern is that the second stage didn’t perform as expected. What if that affects the primary mission on the next flight? They need to understand the root cause before they fly again.
As the article states, the upcoming Europa Clipper launch requires an upper stage relight to put the spacecraft on the desired trajectory. If the second burn does not go as expected, the mission could be in jeopardy.
Not sure about a mission as old as voyager, but most modern missions use CCSDS protocols, which are open and available online.
But just because you know the protocol dues not mean you have enough information to send a valid command. The commands are wrapped in a common protocol, but the commands themselves are typically mission-specific and definitely not made public.
Here’s an example of someone unaffiliated with the mission decoding JWST telemetry. While they were able to identify the packets defined per CCSDS protocols, they do not know the actual content of the packets, which are mission specific.
One weakness is that the glass vial is fragile. In some hotels you’ll see signs reminding guests not to hang clothes from the sprinkler head, as a clothes hanger could break the vial and activate the water flow.