Communications glitches preventing NASA's Voyager probe, the farthest spacecraft ever to fly from Earth, from transmitting data home have scientists increasingly concerned.
Simulation of Voyager 1 with antenna pointed towards Earth. Photo: NASA
Voyager 1, one of NASA’s longest-running missions, is experiencing communications problems. Mission teams fear the spacecraft is too far from Earth to recover. Engineers are currently working to fix a computer glitch that is preventing the spacecraft from transmitting data back to Earth, but software limitations and distance make the task difficult.
Since November 14, the interstellar probe Voyager 1 has been unable to transmit data collected by its science instruments, according to NASA. The spacecraft appears to be receiving and processing commands just fine, according to its California-based support team, and continues to fly through interstellar space, 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, far beyond the edge of the solar system. But without access to the malfunctioning systems, engineers have had a hard time fully assessing the spacecraft's condition. "If we can get it back up and running, that would be the biggest miracle," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager's project manager.
Since Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977, the spacecraft has been traveling away from the Sun at a speed of about 17 kilometers per second. Voyager 1 officially crossed into interstellar space in 2012, becoming the first spacecraft to do so. It is currently the farthest man-made object from Earth.
Initially, the probe transmitted data back to Earth using the flight data system, one of three computers on board. But a malfunction in the subsystem, the telemetry modulator (TMU), meant that instead of the usual binary code, the system transmitted a series of zeros that repeated for months.
Troubleshooting was complicated by the spacecraft's age and distance from Earth. After transmitting a command, the team had to wait 45 hours for the spacecraft to respond. Because the probe was designed and built in the 1970s, much of the technology on board was outdated and the schematics could not be digitized.
If NASA can’t reestablish contact with Voyager 1, it has at least one other probe in interstellar space. Voyager 2 passed the edge of the solar system in 2018 and has been in contact with Earth ever since. NASA’s New Horizons is expected to exit the solar system in the 2040s.
An Khang (According to Live Science )
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