NASA’s 45-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is a wonder. It is cruising alongside out of doors our sun device and nonetheless staying in contact with Earth. However it is offered its group with what NASA is looking a “thriller.” It is running in most cases however sending again some peculiar telemetry knowledge.
The problem most likely strains to Voyager 1’s perspective articulation and keep an eye on device (AACS), which handles its orientation in area, together with the duty of retaining its antenna pointed at Earth
“All indicators recommend the AACS continues to be operating, however the telemetry knowledge it is returning is invalid. As an example, the knowledge would possibly seem to be randomly generated, or does now not replicate any conceivable state the AACS may well be in,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab mentioned in a remark Wednesday.
The knowledge is not making sense, however Voyager 1 is keeping up a transparent line of conversation with house and the issue hasn’t precipitated a protecting “protected mode.”
The dual spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 introduced within the Nineteen Seventies and feature lengthy outlasted their anticipated lifespans. They are each in interstellar area, which Voyager 1 and a couple of undertaking supervisor Suzanne Dodd describes as a “high-radiation atmosphere that no spacecraft have flown in sooner than.”
Voyager 1 is kind of 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) clear of house. It takes a pair days to ship a sign after which listen again, which provides to the problem of working out what is going on. This leaves NASA with a lot of unknowns. Is the AACS the perpetrator or is every other device experiencing a glitch? Will Voyager 1 be capable of proceed its science venture?
There are methods ahead from this glitch. Voyager 1 would possibly simply are living with it. Or a device repair or a transfer to backup {hardware} may well be the answer. NASA hopes each Voyagers will proceed to ship again science knowledge past 2025.
Stated Dodd, “A thriller like that is type of par for the path at this degree of the Voyager venture.”
