2024-02-15 13:36:26
The Voyager 1 space probe only sends junk data to Earth. NASA engineers are working on a solution, but are facing major challenges.
Voyager 1 is the furthest man-made object from Earth and the first space probe to reach interstellar space. She has been exploring our solar system for 46 years. But there have been problems since mid-November.
NASA says a computer malfunction is affecting Voyager 1’s ability to send telemetry data back to Earth. This includes measurements from the spacecraft’s scientific instruments and basic technical information about the probe’s operations. So there is no insight into important parameters of the drive, energy and control systems.
Probe should be put into working mode
The solution to the problem could be to put the Voyager probe into a working mode to isolate the fault. This state is no stranger to the probe: it last worked in this mode when it flew past Jupiter and Saturn in 1979 and 1980.
NASA released an update on Platform X a few days ago. It says: “Engineers are still working to resolve a data issue on Voyager 1. We can talk to the probe and it can hear us, but this is a slow process given the probe’s incredible distance from Earth.”
The decisive factors in solving the problem are distance and time: in order to bridge the more than 24 billion kilometers, it takes over 22 hours for a signal from Earth to reach Voyager 1. And it takes just as long to get an answer back.
“Many of the Voyager people are dead”
“It would be the biggest miracle if we got them back,” Voyager project leader Suzanne Dodd told the science portal Ars Technica. “There are other things we can try. But this is by far the most serious since I’ve been a project manager.”
In addition, many of the original participants in the Voyager project have already died. This means NASA engineers have no choice but to work through decades-old paper instructions. After all, these difficulties clearly show how impressive it is that this well-traveled probe is still active at all.