Engineers recently sent a “poke” to the Voyager 1 probe and received a potentially encouraging response, offering hope for fixing a communication issue that has persisted for five months. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are currently exploring the outer reaches of the solar system. While Voyager 1 has been sending steady radio signals to its mission control team, it has not transmitted any usable data since November, indicating a problem with one of its computers.
A new signal received from the spacecraft suggests that progress is being made in understanding what Voyager 1 is experiencing. Currently situated about 15 billion miles away from Earth, Voyager 1 holds the record for being the farthest spacecraft from our planet. Its counterpart, Voyager 2, has traveled more than 12.6 billion miles from Earth. Both probes have operated beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s magnetic field and particle bubble, and have provided vital insights about our solar system after their initial missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
The communication issue with Voyager 1 was first detected on November 14, 2023, when its flight data system’s telemetry modulation unit started sending a repeating pattern of code. Since then, the mission team has been working to understand the underlying cause of this problem. An attempt was made to restart the computer system, and a command called a “poke” was sent to Voyager 1 on March 1 to run different software sequences and investigate potential glitches.
On March 3, the team noticed a signal that stood out from the garbled data. Though not in the expected format, an engineer with NASA’s Deep Space Network was able to decode it. The decoded signal provided a readout of the entire flight data system’s memory, which includes instructions, variables, and science or engineering data for downlink. By comparing this readout to the previous one, the team aims to identify discrepancies and potentially pinpoint the source of the ongoing issue.
Given Voyager 1’s distance from Earth, it takes approximately 22.5 hours for commands to reach the spacecraft and 45 hours to receive a response. Analyzing the memory readout will take time, as the mission team devises a potential solution based on the information gathered. While this current issue does not appear to be linked to previous glitches, both Voyager probes have encountered unexpected problems throughout their journeys.
As these aging probes continue to explore the cosmos, the mission team has made adjustments to preserve power and prolong their missions. Some instruments have been gradually turned off, allowing these “senior citizen” spacecraft to continue their remarkable journey.