NASA’s Voyager Probes Receive Software Update to Extend Lifespan: Latest News from Interstellar Space Exploration

2023-10-26 10:10:00

Voyager 2. Photo provided by NASA Voyager 1 and 2 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which left Earth 46 years ago and are exploring space, receive a software update. According to Space.com on the 23rd (local time), NASA announced that Voyager 1 A software update was sent to and 2 respectively to prevent debris from accumulating in the thrusters of the two probes. NASA expects that the update, if successfully applied, will extend the probe’s lifespan by regarding five years. “From the mission’s inception in 1977, the research team has achieved unprecedented results,” said Dr. Linda Spilker, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “We face many problems,” he said. “But they continue to come up with creative solutions.” The update sent this time is regarding the thruster mounted on the Voyager probe. The probe uses a thruster to adjust the angle of the antenna, and each time the thruster operates, foreign matter is left in the suction pipe that supplies fuel. Scientists expressed concern that debris might accumulate over decades of operation and completely block the fuel supply tube. Since then, over the course of two months, starting last September, JPL has expanded the probe’s gyration radius to reduce the frequency of thruster operation. I started editing. If this work is successful, it is expected that fuel will be able to continue to be supplied for the next five years. In May last year, the ground control center identified a bug that distorted the data sent by Voyager 1’s ‘Attitude Control System (AACS)’. As a result of verification, AACS hardware was operating normally, but for unknown reasons, AACS transmitted data through equipment that is not currently in use, and the values ​​were distorted. The bug has been fixed, but the cause of the problem has not been found. However, scientists believe that this update can solve a variety of problems that can occur with the probe. “Voyager 1 and 2 are the only space probes that are currently operating in interstellar space,” said Susan Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA. “The transmitted data provides unprecedented value for understanding the universe,” he said. Currently, Voyager 1 is regarding 24.1 billion km away from Earth, and Voyager 2 is regarding 19.3 billion km away, traveling at a speed of regarding 15 km per second. It’s moving away from Earth.
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