Engineers report progress in restoring proper communications with Voyager-1
According to a NASA update yesterday, software engineers for the Voyager-1 spacecraft now beyond the edge of the solar system have managed to decipher the garbled data the spacecraft’s computers have been sending back to Earth since November 2023, and are in the process of analyzing that data with the hope of restoring full understandable communications.
The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.
On March 3, the Voyager mission team saw activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the rest of the computer’s unreadable data stream. The new signal was still not in the format used by Voyager 1 when the FDS is working properly, so the team wasn’t initially sure what to make of it. But an engineer with the agency’s Deep Space Network, which operates the radio antennas that communicate with both Voyagers and other spacecraft traveling to the Moon and beyond, was able to decode the new signal and found that it contains a readout of the entire FDS memory.
This new readable data was the result of a command sent two days before, suggesting that engineers are on the right track. Because Voyager-1 is so far away, 15 billion miles, it takes 22.5 hours for any command to be sent to the spacecraft, and another 22.5 hours for ground controllers to get a response. This long lag time has slowed the effort to fix the problem, but this new success suggests that a full recovery is possible.
That recovery is going to be relatively short-lived, no matter what. The nuclear-powered power sources for both Voyager spacecraft, flying since 1977, are expected to finally run out of power sometime in 2026, after almost a half century of operation. Moreover, the computers on both Voyagers are the longest continuously running computers in history.
The engineering achievement of both is astonishing.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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According to a NASA update yesterday, software engineers for the Voyager-1 spacecraft now beyond the edge of the solar system have managed to decipher the garbled data the spacecraft’s computers have been sending back to Earth since November 2023, and are in the process of analyzing that data with the hope of restoring full understandable communications.
The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.
On March 3, the Voyager mission team saw activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the rest of the computer’s unreadable data stream. The new signal was still not in the format used by Voyager 1 when the FDS is working properly, so the team wasn’t initially sure what to make of it. But an engineer with the agency’s Deep Space Network, which operates the radio antennas that communicate with both Voyagers and other spacecraft traveling to the Moon and beyond, was able to decode the new signal and found that it contains a readout of the entire FDS memory.
This new readable data was the result of a command sent two days before, suggesting that engineers are on the right track. Because Voyager-1 is so far away, 15 billion miles, it takes 22.5 hours for any command to be sent to the spacecraft, and another 22.5 hours for ground controllers to get a response. This long lag time has slowed the effort to fix the problem, but this new success suggests that a full recovery is possible.
That recovery is going to be relatively short-lived, no matter what. The nuclear-powered power sources for both Voyager spacecraft, flying since 1977, are expected to finally run out of power sometime in 2026, after almost a half century of operation. Moreover, the computers on both Voyagers are the longest continuously running computers in history.
The engineering achievement of both is astonishing.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the first feature listed for my phone’s software update is “new emoji”.
It’s as if we are moving backwards.
Garbled transmission….Is this an area where AI would shine?
“Moreover, the computers on both Voyagers are the longest continuously running computers in history.”
Aw, rats! I just rebooted my laptop, so now I have to start the clock all over for the “longest continuously running computer in history” record.
I have to smile whenever I hear the common assertion that the Voyager(s) are “now beyond the edge of the solar system.” It’s true that both Voyager spacecraft have now encountered the interstellar medium, and thus have now traveled beyond the sun’s limited bubble of solar-wind influence in this regard; but the fact is that it will take both outward-bound craft another 300 or so years to even reach the inner edge of the sun’s accompanying Oort Cloud of comets, not to speak of some 30,000 more years to reach the other side — the outer spherical surface of the Oort Cloud — that is the real “edge of the solar system.”
They figured out what it was saying but have they figured out if it will reboot and restart the correct way?
Is it accepting commands? Or will this need a total shutdown and restart?
For all they know right now it could be stuck permanently in this program loop.