The cause of the failure of the Voyager 1 probe discovered, it was sending “meaningless” signals to Earth

NASA engineers have discovered the cause of the failure that has been sending the probe since November 2023 Voyager 1instead of the normal technical data, of meaningless signals, in this case meaningless binary code sequences. At the base of the fault there is a small portion of on-board computer memory which it turns out to be damaged. The probe is thefurthest human object from Earth: is located more than 24 billion kilometers away from our planet, and has beyond behind it 46 years of space travel, therefore it is not easy to repair. But NASA is already working to fix the fault and restore “normal” communication with the historic probe.

The main suspect, confirmed as such in recent days, was the Flight Data System flight computer, responsible for receiving and executing commands from the ground. The memory of this computer was damaged for reasons yet to be ascertained and NASA engineers are currently working to find a solution to the problem and return the probe to operational conditions.

Voyager 1, launched in September 1977 with its twin Voyager 2, it is one of the longest-lived probes built by man and represents themost remote outpost of the humanity of the cosmos. Both probes carry the Voyager Golden Record, a 12-inch gold-plated disk that contains sounds and images to represent humanity. Its primary mission has been to investigate the nature of the Solar System’s gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and it is currently on its extended mission to study the outer reaches of the Solar System. On the mission site it is possible to know in real time the position of the probe, which is currently in interstellar space at more than 24 billion kilometers from the earth.

What are binary codes sent by the probe

Starting from November 2023the spaceship Voyager 1 of NASA began sending a constant radio signal to Earth, interrupting the flow of information on the state of the probe and the measurements it conducted. This signal contains data in the form of binary codea series of zeros and ones which however are not readable and interpretable, a sign of a malfunction in progress.

NASA engineers quickly sprang into action to diagnose the problem and return the spacecraft to its working state. From the beginning of the problem, engineers suspected that the Flight Data System. The latter is the on-board computer that packages the probe’s scientific and engineering data before it is sent to Earth bytelemetry modulation unit (Telemetry Modulation Unit in English). Continuously sending data packets is necessary since the probe’s memory is limited to only 70 kilobytesless than the keys that open the car door.

A corrupt memory module causes the malfunction

After several attempts to obtain readable information from the probe, the turning point came March 2024 when the engineers managed to force the probe to send a complete memory reading of the Flight Data System. Reading the data has finally revealed the mystery: the probe sends illegible data because a small portion (about 3%) of the memory of the Flight Data System results corruptpreventing the probe’s on-board computer from conducting normal operations.

The NASA engineering team is now working to try to solve the problem, although the remoteness of the probe means that each command sent, despite traveling at the speed of light, requires much more 22 hours to get to Voyager.

How memory has become corrupted

What caused the memory malfunction is still under investigation. Voyager 1 is now in the interstellar spaceoutside the solar sphere of influence, and is therefore subject to the action of cosmic rays extremely energetic that would otherwise be deflected by the solar magnetic field. Cosmic rays, made up of high-energy protons and ions, can damage the probe’s onboard electronics, potentially causing the memory malfunction seen.

Another possible explanation is that it is simply the memory module itself damaged due to wear. If you think about it, Voyager 1 has more than 40 years and the space environment is probably the most hostile imaginable, even for a tenacious probe like Voyager.