Voyager 1, 24 billion kms away, is talking to Earth again
NASA says the spacecraft is now returning status data but not yet science data.
NASA’s Voyager 1 probe — the most distant man-made object in the universe — is returning usable information to ground control following months of spouting gibberish, the US space agency says.
The spaceship stopped sending readable data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though controllers could tell it was still receiving their commands.
In March, teams working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that a single malfunctioning chip was to blame.
They then had to devise a clever coding fix that worked within the tight memory constraints of its 46-year-old computer system.
“There was a section of the computer memory no longer working,” project leader Dr Linda Spilker told the ABC.
"So we had to reprogram what was in that memory, move it to a different location, link everything back together and send everything up in a patch.
“And then on Saturday morning, we watched as Voyager 1 sent its first commands back and we knew we were back in communication once again.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-24/voyager-1/103761504
NASA’s Voyager 1 probe — the most distant man-made object in the universe — is returning usable information to ground control following months of spouting gibberish, the US space agency says.
The spaceship stopped sending readable data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though controllers could tell it was still receiving their commands.
In March, teams working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that a single malfunctioning chip was to blame.
They then had to devise a clever coding fix that worked within the tight memory constraints of its 46-year-old computer system.
“There was a section of the computer memory no longer working,” project leader Dr Linda Spilker told the ABC.
"So we had to reprogram what was in that memory, move it to a different location, link everything back together and send everything up in a patch.
“And then on Saturday morning, we watched as Voyager 1 sent its first commands back and we knew we were back in communication once again.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-24/voyager-1/103761504
