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The longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history is struggling with a technical glitch that has disrupted communications with Earth. All that is sent is a meaningless jumble of 1s and 0s. The engineers are trying to figure out why the error occurred, but most importantly, to keep the ship alive so it can complete its mission.
They designed Voyager 1 and 2 to last five years. They are now the two longest-running spacecraft in history. That’s why it was a big shock for the engineers when the 46-year-old instrument suddenly reported an error, which NASA reported in a press release.
The team first noticed the problem in mid-November when the telecommunications unit began sending a jumble of 1s and 0s as if it was stuck in a loop, the website Science Alert pointed out.
Three onboard computers that collect data from the ship’s data systems and scientific instruments are intended to reflect the technical condition of Voyager 1 and send information about it back to Earth in the form of binary code. While the spacecraft remains capable of receiving and executing commands sent by the mission team, a technical error results in critical data not being sent back to Earth.
Voyager 1 is currently so far away that it takes 22.5 hours for commands from Earth to reach the spacecraft. In total, the NASA team has to wait 45 hours before receiving an answer.
In 2020, a similar problem occurred with the Voyager 2 twin when it went through a seven-month period without any communication.
“As the probes continue to explore space, the team is slowly turning off the instruments of these ‘seniors’ to conserve energy and extend their lives,” Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd previously told CNN.
“Voyager is doing much, much more than its original missions and has been operating longer than any other spacecraft in history,” said Calla Cofield, a media specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which is leading the mission. “While the engineering team is working hard to keep them alive, we also anticipate that there will be problems,” she added.
Voyager 1 is now about 15 billion miles from Earth, making it the furthest spacecraft from us. In contrast to its twin Voyager 2, which was able to travel four billion kilometers less.
Both spacecraft are currently in interstellar space and are the only ones that have managed to travel beyond the heliosphere, which extends well beyond Pluto’s orbit.
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