Voyager 1 is an American space probe launched into space on September 5, 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn and then proceed to interstellar space. Today, May 19, 2022, the rig has been in operation for 44 years, 8 months and 14 days. However, this ship has a problem that, given its distance from Earth, will be difficult to solve.
Mission engineers remain puzzled by this “fault”. The messages that Voyager 1 sends make no sense, despite the fact that everything seems to be OK with the equipment.
Those responsible for the mission of the Voyager 1 spacecraft are trying to solve a mystery: although almost everything seems to be going well, one of their systems is not reflecting what is really happening on board. The problem is also particularly difficult to solve for a reason: Voyager 1 is so far away that It takes two days to get a response from the same.
Voyager 1: The problem could be the AACS
Second What does NASA mean?, the Attitude Control and Articulation System (AACS) controls the spacecraft's orientation and keeps the spacecraft's antenna pointed at Earth so it can send and receive data. The system appears to be working, but the telemetry data it sends is invalid and in fact appears to be randomly generated.
The ship does not appear to be in danger. At least so far, the problem has not activated the probe's security systems, which would put the spacecraft in "safe mode". The signal hasn't weakened either and the antennas appear to be well oriented, but it's impossible to know at this point if the conflict will eventually affect other systems.
Where is Voyager 1 now?
As mentioned at the beginning, this spacecraft was launched 45 years ago. After a lifetime of crossing space, it is currently 23.3 billion kilometers from Earth: light takes 20 hours and 33 minutes to travel this distance, and that means it takes almost two days to send a message and to receive an answer.
This timing is not of concern to NASA engineers. Even because they are already used to it and keep in touch with the human equipment that has already reached "the end of space".
The NASA team explained that the probe is now in interstellar space, a high-radiation environment that could pose a challenge for the spacecraft. Even so, NASA has resorted to unique Plan Bs in the past: in 2017 they activated the auxiliary thrusters when the primary thrusters degraded. They hadn't been used for 37 years and yet they performed flawlessly.
Voyager is super efficient. Its panels produce about 4 W of electricity per year, but it requires a rationing of resources to use. Despite this, the system works very well even in limited mode. Several subsystems and radiators have already been shut down to save energy for science instruments, and indeed NASA believes that both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will continue to work beyond 2025 and give us more and more surprises.
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