Mystery issue experienced on NASA's Voyager 1 probe from 1977

CNN Fake News and Pervert Factory ^ | 18 May 2022 | Ashley Strickland

[Magnatron]

The Voyager 1 probe is still exploring interstellar space 45 years after launching, but it has encountered an issue that mystifies the spacecraft's team on Earth.

Voyager 1 continues to operate well, despite its advanced age and 14.5 billion-mile distance (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth. And it can receive and execute commands sent from NASA, as well as gather and send back science data.

But the readouts from the attitude articulation and control system, which control the spacecraft's orientation in space, don't match up with what Voyager is actually doing. The attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, ensures that the probe's high-gain antenna remains pointed at Earth so Voyager can send data back to NASA.

Due to Voyager's interstellar location, it takes light 20 hours and 33 minutes to travel one way, so the call and response of one message between NASA and Voyager takes two days.

So far, the Voyager team believes the AACS is still working, but the instrument's data readouts seem random or impossible. The system issue hasn't triggered anything to put the spacecraft into "safe mode" so far. That's when only essential operations occur so engineers can diagnose an issue that would put the spacecraft at risk.

[cymbeline]

“lEtSgObrAndON”

Either that or a UFO.

[CodeToad]

Gravity may not be what our science thinks it is.

[CodeToad]

Nearly gives me vertigo!

[Bobalu]

More images of the ELF, which used the same CPU as Voyager. I remember that issue of Popular Electronics, I may still have it somewhere....

[TigersEye]

I know you fellers did a good job and you're not at all responsible for this current system error but we need to ask you a favor.

You and Bob and Dave have been selected for a very special mission.

[Bobalu]

I liked that movie...

[TigersEye]

It was a good one!

[nwrep]

It has the Queen of the Night aria on it.

[Flick Lives]

But the readouts from the attitude articulation and control system, which control the spacecraft’s orientation in space, don’t match up with what Voyager is actually doing.

—

“I am Nomad. S-t-e-r-i-l-i-z-e!”

[DiogenesLamp]

This is the same processor that was on the old COSMAC ELF board... if you are a geek and old enough you may have had an ELF.. I did :-)

Me too. Loved it. Used it for quite a lot of projects over the years.

I do recall the 1802 was considered radiation hardened.

[Do_Tar]

May have found the problem.

[pburiak]

When they get a reply “V’ger requires the information” we are in trouble.

[Dog]

In English blam in english....lol

[cuban leaf]

Must sterilize.

[cuban leaf]

Must sterilize.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“The aging probes produce very little power per year,”

My Dad was the program manager at GE for the Radioisotope Thermal Generators (RTGs) that power both Voyager spacecraft.

[ptsal]

Bkmk

[Lazamataz]

This occurred to me too.

We don't know for sure that physics works quite the same in intersteller space. Gravitational forces may have an effect that makes the physics we know and love, work the way it does... but things like the Planck constant may vary absent gravity.

[Revel]

So in maybe 7-8 years it will be a light year away from earth.

[carcraft]

Your satellite warranty is about to expire!