Engineers fix problem that caused data to arrive garbled from Voyager-1
By switching computers on Voyager-1 — now in interstellar space and having recently celebrated its 45th anniversary since launch — engineers were able to prevent data from coming back garbled from the spacecraft.
Earlier this year, the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which keeps Voyager 1’s antenna pointed at Earth, began sending garbled information about its health and activities to mission controllers, despite operating normally. The rest of the probe also appeared healthy as it continued to gather and return science data.
The team has since located the source of the garbled information: The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago, and the computer corrupted the information.
Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager, said that when they suspected this was the issue, they opted to try a low-risk solution: commanding the AACS to resume sending the data to the right computer.
The switch worked. The mystery now is figuring out why the AACS started using that long-decommissioned computer, which could indicate another computer or software issue elsewhere in the spacecraft.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
By switching computers on Voyager-1 — now in interstellar space and having recently celebrated its 45th anniversary since launch — engineers were able to prevent data from coming back garbled from the spacecraft.
Earlier this year, the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which keeps Voyager 1’s antenna pointed at Earth, began sending garbled information about its health and activities to mission controllers, despite operating normally. The rest of the probe also appeared healthy as it continued to gather and return science data.
The team has since located the source of the garbled information: The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago, and the computer corrupted the information.
Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager, said that when they suspected this was the issue, they opted to try a low-risk solution: commanding the AACS to resume sending the data to the right computer.
The switch worked. The mystery now is figuring out why the AACS started using that long-decommissioned computer, which could indicate another computer or software issue elsewhere in the spacecraft.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
This good but it will be a sad day when it goes all quiet permanently.
“Interstellar space” — not. While the Voyager probe(s) have encountered the interstellar medium (having traveled beyond the sun’s “heliopause” bubble following the sun through space), they are still very much part of the (outer) solar system. For instance, it’ll be some 300 years before the two Voyagers arrive at the inner “edge” of the sun’s circling Oort Cloud of comets — and 30,000 more years before they pass completely through it. Then they will have finally departed the solar system for “interstellar space.”
Not to be picky but IIRC Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977 and Voyager 1 launched September 5, 1977.
“pzatchok: “…it will be a sad day when it goes all quiet permanently.”
A quirk of human nature is to elevate the stature of inanimate objects over those of us who inevitably also will pass.
Neither you nor me will be so remembered.
8^D
One good bot on the internet and I could be robo calling all my relatives every year on my birthday just to remind them.
I might not live on but I will never be forgotten!!!!!
A cheap AI by them will make those calls really creepy.