The Voyager 1 spacecraft, currently the farthest human-made object from Earth, has resumed sending back scientific data from over 15 billion miles away. This marks a significant milestone after a computer glitch halted its data transmission for seven months. The glitch, which occurred in November 2023, caused Voyager 1’s flight data system to send back an indecipherable repeating pattern, leaving mission control unable to receive coherent data from the spacecraft.
In April 2024, the Voyager mission team successfully restored communication with the spacecraft by implementing a creative fix. They discovered that 3% of the flight data system’s memory was corrupted due to a malfunctioning chip. This chip stored part of the system's memory, including some critical software code. Without the ability to repair the chip, the team redistributed the corrupted code across different parts of the flight data system's memory.
By May 19, the team managed to command Voyager 1 to start sending back science data again. Initially, two of the spacecraft’s four science instruments began transmitting data, but it took additional time and recalibration for the remaining instruments to follow suit. By June 13, all four instruments were successfully beaming back usable science data.
Voyager 1's flight data system is integral for collecting information from its science instruments, which study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. This data helps scientists understand changes in these fields as the probe ventures farther into uncharted space. The system bundles this information with engineering data that indicates the spacecraft’s health, which is then transmitted to Earth in binary code.
Even with the successful fix, the mission team continues to perform minor adjustments to address residual effects of the initial issue. These include resynchronizing the timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s three onboard computers to ensure precise execution of commands and maintaining the digital tape recorder that logs data from the plasma wave instrument, which is sent to Earth twice a year.
Voyager 1, along with its twin Voyager 2, has been exploring space since their launches in 1977. Initially sent to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, their missions were extended to continue beyond the heliosphere—the Sun's protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles. Currently, both probes are in interstellar space, the only spacecraft to operate beyond the heliosphere, providing invaluable data about the nature of this uncharted territory and the heliosphere's role in shielding Earth from cosmic radiation.
The continued functionality of these nearly 50-year-old spacecraft has not been without challenges. For instance, Voyager 2 experienced a seven-month communication blackout in 2020 and briefly lost contact again in August 2023 when a misaligned antenna required a “shout” command to correct its orientation. Despite these hurdles, the Voyagers' endurance and resilience continue to amaze the mission team, contributing to our understanding of the universe far beyond the heliosphere.
Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expressed her ongoing astonishment at the spacecrafts' durability and scientific contributions. These twin explorers, now traveling different paths through interstellar space, remain vital to space exploration, constantly sending back data that enhances our comprehension of the cosmic environment surrounding our solar system.
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