NASA experts explained why Voyager 1 was transmitting ineffective telemetry information. The option to the puzzle was to start off a laptop or computer that experienced been considered non-practical for many years. Now the engineers have an additional confusion: they have to obtain out what introduced it.
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Following months of speculation, the Voyager 1 scientists discovered the place the “secret indicators” came from.
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The outdated computer system labored
A product that has been traversing room for 45 years began giving baffling information a number of months ago. We described this vulnerability in May well. NASA suspected the challenge was with AACS communication and location control. The option turned out to be additional surprising.
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– AACS started sending telemetry info through an onboard computer system that stopped working years in the past. It was he who corrupted the data – he informed NASA Tuesday. The relaxation of the ship is most likely doing work high-quality.
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When the engineers began to guess that Voyager 1 was utilizing the old computer, they basically sent a command to the probe to get the method back again on observe. The maintenance wasn’t risky for the mission, but it took a extensive time. The radio signal takes just about 22 hours to reach Voyager 1, much more than 23.5 billion kilometers from Earth.
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Voyager 1 – visualizationThuy Mai / NASA
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A person riddle led to the other
While the bug has been preset, NASA engineers have an additional mystery to solve: What prompted Voyager to start out applying the aged computer system?
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“We are joyful to have the telemetry back,” stated Suzanne Dodd, Voyager task supervisor. – We will do a finish looking at of the AACS memory and evaluation everything it has finished. This will help us diagnose the element that caused the telemetry problem, she added.
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Scientists suspect that Voyager 1 commenced employing the improper computer system since it received these a command from the onboard pc. This would suggest some other interaction problem with Voyager by itself. On the other hand, the mission administration did not imagine that the difficulties would have an effect on the spacecraft’s ongoing journey.
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“We are cautious optimistic for the reason that we however have a ton to do,” added Dodd.
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In 1977, NASA launched two twin probes: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. In the beginning, their mission was to check out the outer planets of the Solar Procedure. Voyager 1 flew in excess of Jupiter and Saturn, achieving interstellar room in 2012. The 2nd probe attained this milestone 6 several years later.
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photo-source">Most important photo resource: Thuy Mai / NASA
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