NASA Restores Communication with Voyager 1 Probe After Months of Silence

NASA has successfully fixed a communication issue with the 47-year-old Voyager 1 space probe, enabling it to transmit understandable messages to Earth after months of silence.

The technical problem, which began on November 14, 2023, had caused Voyager 1 to send indecipherable messages, rendering the engineering and scientific data unusable.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) traced the issue to a malfunctioning chip in one of the probe's onboard computers, the Flight Data Subsystem (FDS). The chip, responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory including some of its software code, had stopped working properly. This led to the science and engineering data becoming unreadable when received on Earth.

To resolve the problem, the JPL team spent months diagnosing the issue and devising a solution. They ultimately decided to reconfigure the software and relocate the affected code to other parts of the FDS memory. On April 18, 2024, engineers sent the first command to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. Two days later, on April 20, they received a successful response from the spacecraft, indicating that the data stream had been restored.

Why this matters: The restoration of communication with Voyager 1 allows scientists to continue receiving valuable data about interstellar space from the pioneering probe. As one of only two spacecraft to have ever ventured beyond the Sun's reach, Voyager 1's observations help researchers study cosmic rays, radiation levels, and the influence of the Sun at vast distances.

Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager mission at JPL, expressed relief and excitement about the successful fix. "We're thrilled to have the telemetry back," Dodd said. "We'll do a full memory readout of the AACS and look at everything it's been doing. That will help us try to diagnose why things went wrong with the AACS and come up with ways to prevent it from happening again."

With the probe's engineering data now readable, the team is working on relocating the software code responsible for the science data. Once complete, Voyager 1 will be able to resume transmitting scientific observations from its unique vantage point in interstellar space. Despite being launched over 46 years ago and currently located more than 15 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, continue to operate and make groundbreaking discoveries far beyond their original five-year missions.

Key Takeaways

• NASA fixed Voyager 1's communication issue, restoring data transmission.
• The issue was caused by a malfunctioning chip in the onboard computer.
• Reconfiguring the software and relocating the affected code resolved the problem.
• Voyager 1's observations help study cosmic rays, radiation, and the Sun's influence.
• Voyager 1 and 2 continue operating and making discoveries beyond their original missions.