Credit: Caltech/NASA-JPLNASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun transmitting usable engineering data for the first time because November after a chip failure in one of its onboard computers halted information transmission.For the very first time because November 2023, NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. No single area is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.After getting data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the very first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20. Introduced over 46 years ago, the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history.
Artists illustration of among the Voyager spacecraft. Credit: Caltech/NASA-JPLNASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft has actually begun sending functional engineering information for the very first time given that November after a chip failure in among its onboard computer systems halted information transmission.For the very first time given that November 2023, NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning functional data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next action is to enable the spacecraft to start returning science data once again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space in between stars). Voyager 1 stopped sending understandable science and engineering data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though objective controllers might tell the spacecraft was still getting their commands and otherwise operating generally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California validated that the concern was tied to one of the spacecrafts 3 onboard computer systems, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is accountable for packaging the science and engineering data before its sent to Earth.Solution to the Memory IssueThe group found that a single chip responsible for storing a part of the FDS memory– consisting of some of the FDS computers software application code– isnt working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Not able to repair the chip, the team chose to position the affected code in other places in the FDS memory. However no single place is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.After getting data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the very first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight group celebrate in a meeting room at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechImplementing the FixSo they devised a plan to divide the afflicted code into areas and store those areas in various locations in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to change those code areas to guarantee, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the area of that code in other parts of the FDS memory required to be upgraded as well.The team begun by singling out the code accountable for product packaging the spacecrafts engineering data. They sent it to its brand-new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 1/2 hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 1/2 hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the objective flight group heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the very first time in 5 months, they had the ability to check the health and status of the spacecraft.Future Plans and Voyager 2 StatusDuring the coming weeks, the team will relocate and change the other afflicted parts of the FDS software application. These include the portions that will start returning science data.Voyager 2 continues to operate typically. Released over 46 years back, the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history. Before the start of their interstellar expedition, both probes zipped Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.Caltech in Pasadena, California, handles JPL for NASA.
