NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has reported a computer problem that is causing a minor communication glitch between the 46-year-old probe and its mission team on Earth.
Engineers are trying to solve the problem as the ancient spacecraft explores uncharted cosmic territories throughout the depths of the solar system.
Voyager 1 is currently the most distant spacecraft from Earth, at around 24 billion kilometers away, while its twin Voyager 2 has traveled more than 20 billion kilometers from our planet. Both are in interstellar space and are the only spacecraft to operate beyond the heliosphere, the solar bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends far beyond Pluto’s orbit.
Initially designed to last five years, the Voyager probes are the two longest operating spacecraft in history. Their exceptionally long lifetimes mean that both spacecraft have provided additional information about our solar system and more, after achieving their preliminary goals of flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune decades ago.
But his unexpectedly long journeys were not without challenges.
Voyager 1 has three computers on board, including a flight data system that collects information from the spacecraft’s scientific instruments and collates it with engineering data that reflects the current state of Voyager 1. Mission control on Earth receives this data in binary code, that is, a series of ones and zeros. But Voyager 1’s flight data system now appears to be stuck in automatic replay.
A long-distance failure
The mission team first noticed the problem on Nov. 14, when the flight data system’s telecommunications unit began sending back a repeating pattern of ones and zeros, as if it were stuck in a loop.
Although the probe can still receive and execute commands transmitted by the mission team, a problem with that telecommunications unit means that no scientific or engineering data from Voyager 1 is being returned to Earth.
The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend to the spacecraft to reset the flight data system, but no usable data has arrived yet, according to NASA.
NASA engineers are currently trying to gather more information about the cause of the problem before determining next steps to possibly fix it, said Calla Cofield, media relations specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. who manages the mission. The process can take weeks.
The last time Voyager 1 had a similar but not identical problem with its flight data system was in 1981, and the current problem does not appear to be linked to other failures the spacecraft has suffered in recent years, Cofield said.
As both Voyager probes undergo new tests, mission team members have only the original manuals written decades ago to consult, and these fail to explain the challenges the spacecraft faces as it ages.
The Voyager team wants to consider all potential implications before sending more commands to the spacecraft to ensure its operations are not unexpectedly affected.
Voyager 1 is so far away that it takes 22.5 hours for commands sent from Earth to reach the spacecraft. Additionally, the team must wait 45 hours to receive a response.
Keeping the Voyager probes alive
As the aging twin Voyager probes continue to explore the cosmos, the team has slowly turned off the instruments of these “senior citizens” to conserve energy and extend their missions, Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, previously told CNN.
Along the way, both spacecraft encountered unexpected problems and disruptions, including a seven-month period in 2020 when Voyager 2 was unable to communicate with Earth. In August, the mission team used a long-range “whooping” technique to restore communications with Voyager 2 after a command inadvertently oriented the spacecraft’s antenna in the wrong direction.
Although the team hopes to restore the regular flow of data sent by Voyager 1, the mission’s main value lies in its long duration, Cofield said. For example, scientists want to see how particles and magnetic fields change as probes move away from the heliosphere. But that data set will be incomplete if Voyager 1 can’t return information as it goes.
The mission team has been creative in its strategies to increase power supply on both spacecraft in recent years to allow their record-breaking missions to continue.
“Voyagers are performing far, far beyond their primary missions and for longer than any other spacecraft in history,” said Cofield. “So while the engineering team is working hard to keep them alive, we also expect issues to arise.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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