NASA Efficiently Repairs Voyager 1 Area Probe After Technical Points

In November 2023, Voyager 1 started transmitting zero info to Earth, as an alternative of helpful, scientific info. Retrieving the probe was not straightforward: Voyager 1 is about 15 billion miles from Earth and is nearly fifty years previous.

It took six months to partially resolve the issue. First we needed to discover out what the issue was. After a whole readout of Voyager 1’s reminiscence, it turned out that the code on a chip of the probe had been corrupted. It was not doable to revive the chip, so it was determined to maneuver the code to totally different corners of the system.

All gadgets work once more

The re-enrollment took six months. On April 18, the brand new code was despatched to Voyager 1. As a result of the probe is so removed from Earth, it took 22.5 hours for the replace to succeed in its vacation spot. It was solely after one other 22.5 that NASA knew the answer had labored. Voyager 1 made contact with Earth once more.

However that was not the tip of the story. Though Voyager 1 stopped speaking nonsense, it was nonetheless unable to assemble and skim scientific info. In Might, NASA bought the primary two of the 4 science devices working once more. A month later the opposite two are working once more as nicely. NASA tell us press launch.

Interstellar house

Now that the spacecraft is totally operational once more, some small points stay to be resolved, corresponding to resynchronizing the inner clocks of the onboard computer systems. However that is kid’s play in comparison with reprogramming a machine far past the farthest planet in our photo voltaic system.

Voyager 1, together with its twin brother Voyager 2, is the one spacecraft outdoors the heliosphere. That’s the ‘bubble’ of charged particles that the solar emits. The spacecraft is each in interstellar house and gathering useful details about it that can’t be gathered by every other instrument.

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