Voyager 1 is back to working properly after 5 months: this is how the probe problem was solved
It’s been a full five months since NASA was last able to receive data from Voyager 1 that they were decipherable. In fact, there was a serious communication problem with the historic space probe, which is the furthest from humanity. Consider that at present it is about 24 billion kilometers from Earth. Five months of failed attempts, until a very creative idea came to fruition.
Problem solved
The Voyager 1’s launch took place 46 years ago, before the birth of many of the researchers who worked on solving the problem that occurred. The probe is experiencing the effects of natural aging. As time passes, a very particular condition occurs. Scientists on Earth have vastly more advanced technology at their disposal, which forces them to leap into the past to solve some problems.
The most recent issue, surfaced in November 2023, concerned the flight data system telemetry modulation unit. In fact, it began transmitting a repetitive code to Earth, which was totally meaningless to our systems.
Everything changed on April 20, 2024, five months later in fact. The first data considered coherent have arrived, relating to the state and health of the probe’s engineering systems. Analysis by scientists is still underway, but the first results highlight how the operating conditions are generally good. Here are the words of Linda Spilker, Voyajer project scientist at JPL: “This has been a fantastic day for Voyager 1. We are once again in communication with the spacecraft. We eagerly await the return of the scientific data.”
Discovery and resolution
However, it is natural to ask how it was possible to remedy what happened to the historic Voyager probe. It was achieved after a series of attempts, but above all a very detailed investigation. It was discovered, after five months, a single defective chipwhich was ruining the entire project.
On March 3, 2024, the team of researchers discovered how a portion of the data stood out from all the rest. An engineer from NASA’s Deep Space Network decoded the signal, which included a complete readout of the system’s memory for flight data.
In fact, 3% of the memory was corrupted due to the aforementioned chip. The trigger for all this would be simple wear and tear, which is definitely understandable. How, however, was it possible to repair the damage at such a distance? The technicians decided to move the code in question to other areas of memory, “simply”. By updating the relevant references and dividing everything into sections, a return to normal functioning was guaranteed.
On April 18, a radio signal was sent to the Voyager 1 probe, which received it after 22.5 hours. The response arrived on April 20, confirming that the code change was a real success. The team will continue to move other parts of the software in the coming days. In fact, we will try to continue the journey as much as possible. Consider how Voyager 1 was intended for a five-year mission in 1977. The fact that it still communicates with us is a miracle of modern science.
