The Voyager 1 space probe was launched in September 1977 and is currently about 23.5 billion kilometers from Earth, but NASA scientists have just made a repair on board despite the vast distance.
Voyager-1 has been transmitting noisy information from the position control system since May this year, part of the probe whose mission is to make sure that the probe’s antenna is pointing toward Earth.
The information sent by the probe regarding its safety and activities did not make sense, even though the rest of its parts continued to function normally. The issue is now fixed thanks to a change in the way data is sent from Voyager-1 to Earth.
“We were happy to fix the telemetry process,” said Susan Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Scientists have discovered that the spacecraft has started sending data from an onboard computer, which is supposed to have stopped working several years ago. NASA ordered Voyager-1 to switch to the correct computer in order to communicate. The reason why Voyager-1 switched the mechanism for sending data back to Earth is still unknown. The most likely explanation is an error generated elsewhere in the probe’s electronic systems.
This, in turn, indicates that there is a problem elsewhere, otherwise the computer would not have changed the transmission method. But the Voyager-1 team is confident that the spacecraft’s long-term safety is not under threat.
“We’ll do a full memory read of the position control system and take a look at what it was doing, as that will help us diagnose the problem that caused the telemetry malfunction in the first place,” Dodd said.
The Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 probes, which launched a month before their twin, have traveled so far for 45 years that they have both now crossed the point known as the edge of the heliosphere, where the influence of the solar wind ceases and interstellar space is considered.
Although Voyager-1 has shut down some of its systems and lost some functionality in the meantime, and Voyager-2 also needs a bit of troubleshooting, both probes still reported back to Earth, even if the message took about two days to travel the necessary distance.
The spacecraft has sent back to Earth close-ups of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and in recent years has continued to record and analyze strange and astonishing experiences while in space. Voyager-1 did not operate in normal safety mode, which means that it did not detect anything wrong, and the vehicle’s signal is still strong.
Voyager 1 could continue to report for several years to come if all goes well.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Dodd said, “but we still have more studies to do.”
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