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The “Voyager 1” space probe has not been sending understandable data to Earth for months. But now NASA is reporting a possible breakthrough.
Pasadena – The NASA space probe “Voyager 1” has Communication problems since November 2023. Instead of sending useful data, the aging probe only delivers “gibberish.” The concerns about the space probe, which went into service in 1977 and that Solar system has long since left behind, are enormous. But now there is positive news from the US space agency NASA.
On March 3rd, “Voyager 1” sent an unusual signal to Earth. Although the signal does not correspond to the usual format in which the spacecraft normally communicates, an employee of NASA’s Deep Space Network telescope system managed to decipher it. The says NASA. The signal from Voyager 1 contains the entire contents of the FDS memory – the system in which the Voyager team suspects the problem.
| Voyager 1 |
| September 5, 1977, 12:56 UTC |
| 24,356,710,739 km |
| 24,372,427,865 km |
| 16.9995 km/s (equivalent to 61,198.2 km/h) |
| 22 hours, 34 minutes and 5 seconds |
| Source: NASA, as of March 15, 2024 |
NASA receives new signal from defective Voyager 1 spacecraft
The signal sent by Voyager 1 contains the complete code: instructions for Voyager’s actions, changeable variables and values based on the state of the probe, and scientific and technical data to be sent to Earth. For the team that has been trying to decipher the mysterious signals from Voyager 1 for months, this is a real treasure.
The next step is to compare this data with what the probe sent before the problem occurred. The Voyager team is looking for differences in code and variables in hopes of finding the cause of the problem.
A gentle “nudge” in space allows “Voyager 1” to send a new signal
The new signal from Voyager 1 is the result of a command that the NASA team sent into space on March 1st. The so-called “poke”, a kind of gentle “nudging”, was intended to cause the presumably defective FDS computer to test various sequences in its software package. The team hopes that bypassing a corrupted memory section can solve the problem.
The NASA team that… “Voyager” spacecraft will analyze the new data – but this work will take time. NASA emphasizes in its statement: “Using this information to develop a possible solution and try to put it into action takes time.” This is not due to the speed of the “Voyager” team, but because of the enormous speed Distance between the spacecraft and Earth, which is about 24 billion kilometers.
It currently takes 22.5 hours for a signal from Earth to reach Voyager. A response from the spacecraft will take another 22.5 hours to reach the Deep Space Network antennas on Earth. So the team spends most of its time waiting for a signal from Voyager – in the constant hope that the next response will be understandable. (tab)
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