NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, the farthest human-made object from Earth, recently faced a major technical issue that left it without contact for over five months. The spacecraft’s engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) discovered a corrupted chip in one of its computers, making it unable to send any updates back to Earth.
After attempts to repair the chip failed, the team at JPL had to come up with an alternative solution. They decided to store the affected code in different locations in Voyager 1’s memory, allowing the spacecraft to resume sending engineering updates to Earth.
While the fix is a temporary solution, Voyager 1 will soon undergo further adjustments to start returning science data in the coming weeks. The spacecraft, launched in 1977 as part of the Voyager program, made history in 2012 by entering interstellar space.
Meanwhile, Voyager 1’s twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, continues to operate normally and is currently the second-farthest spacecraft from Earth. Voyager 2 achieved interstellar status in 2018, sending valuable data back to Earth about the far reaches of our solar system.
The successful implementation of the fix for Voyager 1 demonstrates the resilience and ingenuity of NASA’s engineers, ensuring that the spacecraft can continue its groundbreaking mission of exploring beyond our solar system. Stay tuned for more updates on Voyager 1 as it resumes sending vital scientific data back to Earth.
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