NASA repairs Voyager 1 25 billion miles away

The Voyager 1 interstellar probe is playing overtime again. NASA engineers have already succeeded in restoring communications with the venerable spacecraft, ending a seven-month period of silence due to a technical problem. This feat represents a new milestone in interstellar exploration and demonstrates the flexibility of technology and human ingenuity.

A technical problem billions of kilometers away has been solved

In November 2023, Voyager 1 began sending inconsistent signals after a failure in one of the three on-board computers. For months, scientists have been trying to solve this complex problem.

A breakthrough was not achieved until April 2024. Engineers sent an order to Flight data subsystem (FDS) is responsible for coordinating scientific data before transferring it. This allowed Voyager 1 to send its first readable message in four months, allowing engineers to pinpoint the problem to a faulty computer chip.

The solution was to devise an alternative way to modify the FDS code remotely, a complex task given Voyager 1's location. More than 24 billion kilometers in Earth. This intervention was ultimately successful and made it possible to gradually recover the probe's scientific instruments.

By May, two of the four tools had begun returning usable data. With some additional modifications, All tools are now ready to goAnd collect valuable information about plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles in interstellar space.

Despite this success, the full restoration of Voyager 1 still needs work. Engineers actually have to re-synchronize the timing software, which is necessary for the simultaneous operation of the three on-board computers. It is also necessary to maintain the probe's digital recording device, which stores data from the plasma wave device.

Well deserved retirement

As a reminder, Voyager 1 is currently traveling through interstellar space, a region outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble created by magnetic fields and solar wind. At this distance, orders sent from Earth were placed 22.5 hours To reach the probe and responses take a long time to come back. NASA's ability to solve such complex technical problems at such a great distance is a testament to the ingenuity and perseverance of engineers and scientists.

If all goes as planned, Voyager 1 will continue to provide invaluable data until approximately 2025, enriching our understanding of interstellar space.