- NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been touring outward from Earth for 46 years and seven months, as of today. It’s now 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth, making communications with its Earthly controllers almost a 2-day spherical journey.
- In November 2023, Voyager 1 started sending again solely gibberish. As of late last month, the Voyager 1 staff was attempting varied issues to immediate the craft to reply, together with a particular command, known as a “poke” by the staff. Following the “poke,” the staff was capable of decipher a message from the spacecraft, though with issue.
- Now Voyager 1 has begun sending an intelligible sign again to Earth once more. The sign accommodates engineering updates. Scientists hope they’ll immediate the craft to renew sending science knowledge once more.
Voyager 1 has phoned residence
For the primary time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable knowledge in regards to the well being and standing of its onboard engineering techniques. The subsequent step is to allow the spacecraft to start returning science knowledge once more. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the one spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).
Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering knowledge again to Earth on November 14, 2023, despite the fact that mission controllers may inform the spacecraft was nonetheless receiving their instructions and in any other case working usually. In March, the Voyager engineering staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the difficulty was tied to one of many spacecraft’s three onboard computer systems, known as the flight knowledge subsystem (FDS). The FDS is liable for packaging the science and engineering knowledge earlier than it’s despatched to Earth.
The staff found {that a} single chip liable for storing a portion of the FDS reminiscence – together with a few of the FDS pc’s software program code – isn’t working. The lack of that code rendered the science and engineering knowledge unusable. Unable to restore the chip, the staff determined to put the affected code elsewhere within the FDS reminiscence. However no single location is massive sufficient to carry the part of code in its entirety.
Right here’s how they mounted it
So that they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and retailer these sections in other places within the FDS. To make this plan work, additionally they wanted to regulate these code sections to make sure, for instance, that all of them nonetheless operate as an entire. Any references to the placement of that code in different components of the FDS reminiscence wanted to be up to date as properly.
The staff began by singling out the code liable for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering knowledge. They despatched it to its new location within the FDS reminiscence on April 18. A radio sign takes about 22 1/2 hours to achieve Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and one other 22 1/2 hours for a sign to return again to Earth. When the mission flight staff heard again from the spacecraft on April 20, they noticed that the modification labored: for the primary time in 5 months, they’ve been capable of verify the well being and standing of the spacecraft.
In the course of the coming weeks, the staff will relocate and alter the opposite affected parts of the FDS software program. These embody the parts that may begin returning science knowledge.
In the meantime, Voyager 1’s twin spacecraft – Voyager 2 – continues to function usually. Launched over 46 years in the past, the dual Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in historical past. Earlier than the beginning of their interstellar exploration, each probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.
Backside line: Now Voyager 1 has begun sending an intelligible sign again to Earth once more. The sign accommodates engineering updates. Scientists hope they’ll immediate the craft to renew sending science knowledge once more.
