[Space probe next to Jupiter, Photo Credits to Pixabay]

Five months ago, NASA’s mission team noticed that Voyager 1’s light data system was stuck on auto-repeat.

Voyager 1’s telecommunications unit was sending back an indelible pattern of codes, as if it was trapped in an infinite loop.

This meant that although commands were transmitted, no science or engineering data from Voyager 1 could return to Earth.

Due to its distance from Earth, it takes 22.5 hours for commands sent from Earth to reach each spacecraft, and the crew must wait an additional 45 hours to receive a response.

After discovering the issue, the ship went through several attempts to restart the spacecraft’s computer system.

For example, on March 1, the crew sent a command called a “poke” to Voyager 1 in an attempt to initiate a different software sequence in the flight system data.

Then, on March 3, the team found that a certain section of the flight data exhibited unique activity from the rest.

After decoding the message, it became apparent that around 3% of the flight data was corrupted, which indicates that the single chip used for storing data wasn’t functioning properly.

Moreover, this led to the science and engineering data unusable.

Some possibilities for the chip failure include wear and tear or impact by energetic particles from space.

Voyager 1, launched by NASA on September 55, 1977, is part of the Voyager program, aimed at studying the Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere.

Initially designed to last around 5 years, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 now hold the record as the two longest-operating spacecraft in history.

Voyager 1, currently located 15 billion miles away from Earth, has provided valuable insights into the solar system by flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Along the way, the two probes have encountered several minor issues and dropouts.

For example, during a seven-month period in 2020, Voyager 2 hadn’t been able to properly communicate with Earth.

Nevertheless, in August, the mission control team successfully used a technique called the long shot “shout” to restore communications.

Now, concerning Voyager 1, its flight data systems began transmitting indecipherable repeating patterns of code back to Earth starting in November 2023, at the age of 46.

Voyager 1 has only three computers onboard, which includes a flight data system that collects information from the spacecraft’s science instruments.

Mission control on Earth receives this data in sets of binary codes.

Although Voyager 1 experienced similar problems in 1981, mission control had claimed that the problem was not associated with previous glitches.

However, from November 2023 to April 20, 2024, the probe relayed a steady radio signal to Earth without carrying any usable data.

Gratefully, the mission team received data about the status of Voyager 1 on April 20th.

The new data suggests that Voyager 1 is operating properly and in adequate condition.

It has also relayed information showing that the code modification was successful, and the mission control team can now receive decipherable engineering data from the probe once again.