Four days have passed since NASA’s planetary probe ‘Voyager 1’, 46 years after launch, aborted its mission due to a computer error. NASA predicted that it could take at least several weeks to restore normalcy.
NASA announced on the 16th through its official channels that the computer error of Voyager 1, which occurred on the 12th of this month, has not been resolved for four days. NASA explained that the error occurred in part of the computer, and that the Voyager 1 operation team on the ground is currently working to resolve the problem.
Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, is currently flying about 24.4 billion km away from Earth. Since it takes about 22 hours and 34 minutes one way to communicate with Earth, it takes over 45 hours just to send a command to catch an error and receive a response.
Voyager 1 is flying about 24.4 billion km away from Earth. <사진=NASA 공식 홈페이지>
A NASA official said, “The problem occurred with the flight data system (FDS) mounted on ‘Voyager 1′” and “FDS is a subsystem that collects ‘Voyager’ observation data and engineering data on the status of the probe. “It is important equipment to be sent to Earth through .”
This official said, “An anomaly was confirmed among the data recently transmitted to Earth through the subsystem, and the cause appears to be the FDS. A reboot was attempted to return the FDS to the state before the problem occurred, but the FDS is still unable to communicate properly. “Status,” he added.
FDS mounted on Voyager 1 and 2. It was made using technology 46 years ago. <사진=NASA 공식 홈페이지>
According to NASA, ‘Voyager 1 and 2’ were completed with technology 46 years ago, and the manuals that engineers refer to in case of a malfunction were already written half a century ago. When faced with a new problem that is not included in the manual, it takes quite some time to rewrite the command, and since sending and receiving alone takes two more days, NASA predicted that it will take at least several weeks to fix this error.
The twin probes ‘Voyager 2’, which were launched in the same year as ‘Voyager 1’, also suffered a breakdown this year. ‘Voyager 2’, located about 19.9 billion km away from Earth, lost communication with the ‘deep space network (DSN)’, a deep space communication network operated by NASA, on July 21, and the problem was resolved within 15 days. .
Reporter Jeong Ian anglee@sputnik.kr
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