NASA Engineers Make Progress in Restoring Voyager 1’s Onboard Computer
In a collaborative effort, a team of NASA scientists and engineers have successfully restored a portion of the onboard computer system on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched in the 1970s. This achievement marks a significant step towards bringing the first human-made interstellar probe back to its normal operational state.
Gathering at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The team, consisting of several dozen experts, convened at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Saturday. Some members participated in person, while others joined virtually, eagerly awaiting a new signal from Voyager 1. The ground team had previously sent a command to the spacecraft on Thursday, aiming to recode a section of the memory within the Flight Data System (FDS).
Voyager 1’s Unexpected Data Transmission Issues
In November, Voyager 1 encountered a problem that caused it to stop transmitting its regular stream of data, which typically includes information about the spacecraft’s health and measurements collected by its scientific instruments. Instead, the datastream became entirely unintelligible, making it difficult for experts on the ground to identify the source of the issue. They speculated that the problem might lie within the memory bank of the FDS.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
6 Comments
NASA repairing Voyager 1 from 15 billion miles away? Sounds like someone took “working remotely” to the ultimate level.
NASA, fixing spacecraft billions of miles away like it’s just another day at the office. How’s that for remote work?
NASA just gave “long-distance relationship” a whole new meaning with that Voyager 1 fix!
Talk about a cosmic service call; NASA’s repair skills are literally out of this world!
NASA’s remote troubleshooting on Voyager 1 really puts our Wi-Fi complaints into perspective, doesn’t it?
NASA’s got better signal fixing Voyager 1 from 15 billion miles away than my phone gets in the city, talk about interstellar tech support!