NASA's Voyager 1 Probe Glitches, Data No Longer Coming From 46-Year-Old Spacecraft
Marissa Papanek
NASA engineers are working to fix a glitch in the aging computers of the space probe Voyager 1.
A malfunction has caused the distant spacecraft to stop sending information to Earth, Knewz.com has learned.
NASA's Voyager 1 space probe has experienced a malfunction and is no longer transmitting data to Earth. By: MEGA
Voyager 1's flight data system (FDS) usually collects information about the "health and status" of the spacecraft and transmits it back to engineers at NASA.
The probe's computers, however, have begun "transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were 'stuck,'" NASA said in a blog post on Tuesday, December 12. "As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth."
The agency said engineers were working to resolve the problem, which they determined was coming from the FDS.
The Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977 and has traveled the farthest of any spacecraft in history, according to NASA. By: MEGA
"This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data." NASA said.
Fixing the probe may take several weeks, with engineers facing the daunting task of combing through decades-old documents to understand the aging technology.
Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched into space on September 5, 1977, making them the oldest operating spacecraft, designed by "engineers who didn't anticipate the issues that are arising today," the blog post said. The team must ensure their fix avoids "unintended consequences."
Complicating matters further, it takes 45 hours for mission controllers on Earth to send a command to Voyager 1 and receive a response, due to its distance from the planet.
It takes 45 hours for mission controllers on Earth to send Voyager 1 a message and receive a response, complicating the task of repairing the spacecraft. By: MEGA
Not only is it one of the oldest spacecraft; the Voyager 1 has also traveled farther than any others, currently exploring the outer reaches of the solar system more than 15 billion miles away from Earth.
Voyager 1 has experienced other malfunctions in recent years. In May of 2022, its attitude articulation and control system started acting up, sending "nonsense telemetery data for several months before a workaround was found," Space.com reported.
NASA resolved that recurring glitch with a software update in October of this year.
"Not only are the Voyager missions providing humanity with observations of truly uncharted territory, but they are also helping scientists understand the very nature of energy and radiation in space—key information for protecting future missions and astronauts," NASA states on its Voyager 1 webpage.
Marissa Papanek
NASA engineers are working to fix a glitch in the aging computers of the space probe Voyager 1.
A malfunction has caused the distant spacecraft to stop sending information to Earth, Knewz.com has learned.
NASA's Voyager 1 space probe has experienced a malfunction and is no longer transmitting data to Earth. By: MEGA
Voyager 1's flight data system (FDS) usually collects information about the "health and status" of the spacecraft and transmits it back to engineers at NASA.
The probe's computers, however, have begun "transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were 'stuck,'" NASA said in a blog post on Tuesday, December 12. "As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth."
The agency said engineers were working to resolve the problem, which they determined was coming from the FDS.
The Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977 and has traveled the farthest of any spacecraft in history, according to NASA. By: MEGA
"This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data." NASA said.
Fixing the probe may take several weeks, with engineers facing the daunting task of combing through decades-old documents to understand the aging technology.
Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched into space on September 5, 1977, making them the oldest operating spacecraft, designed by "engineers who didn't anticipate the issues that are arising today," the blog post said. The team must ensure their fix avoids "unintended consequences."
Complicating matters further, it takes 45 hours for mission controllers on Earth to send a command to Voyager 1 and receive a response, due to its distance from the planet.
It takes 45 hours for mission controllers on Earth to send Voyager 1 a message and receive a response, complicating the task of repairing the spacecraft. By: MEGA
Not only is it one of the oldest spacecraft; the Voyager 1 has also traveled farther than any others, currently exploring the outer reaches of the solar system more than 15 billion miles away from Earth.
Voyager 1 has experienced other malfunctions in recent years. In May of 2022, its attitude articulation and control system started acting up, sending "nonsense telemetery data for several months before a workaround was found," Space.com reported.
NASA resolved that recurring glitch with a software update in October of this year.
"Not only are the Voyager missions providing humanity with observations of truly uncharted territory, but they are also helping scientists understand the very nature of energy and radiation in space—key information for protecting future missions and astronauts," NASA states on its Voyager 1 webpage.
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Summary
NASA's Voyager 1 Probe has encountered a malfunction, causing it to stop transmitting data to Earth. The issue is thought to be originating from the spacecraft's Flight Data System (FDS). Engineers are working on resolving the problem and have attempted to restart the FDS, but no usable data has