Posted on 08/30/2022 12:57:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
Illustration of a 1970s Voyage spacecraft with a cone-like white section and antenna pointed up. NASA illustration shows a Voyager spacecraft. NASA
Interstellar. It's not just the name of a blockbuster sci-fi movie, it's the reality of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, a 45-year-old explorer that's investigating the cosmos outside our solar system and weathering some of the problems that come from age and distance. On Tuesday, NASA JPL announced the Voyager team had tracked down the source of a pesky data glitch.
NASA shared the glitch issue in May, calling it a mystery. Voyager 1 was sending back weird, garbled telemetry data from its attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which is responsible for positioning the spacecraft and making sure its antenna is pointed in the right direction to communicate with Earth. However, the probe seemed to be operating normally.
It's tough to diagnose and fix a problem when Voyager 1 is so far away, but the team figured it out: "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," NASA JPL said in a statement. The fix involved telling the AACS to switch back to the correct computer for sending data.
While the solution sounds simple, the glitch hints at the possibility of a deeper problem. Engineers don't know why the glitch cropped up in the first place, but another computer sending a faulty command could be the culprit. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said the team is cautiously optimistic, but will continue to investigate the issue.
Voyager and its twin Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and are both outside our solar system. The NASA Voyager Twitter account, which is run in the voice of the spacecraft, tweeted, "The team has declared me healthy, which is great, because I still have more interstellar exploring to do!"
Voyager is outside the heliosphere
But radios wave are not they pass through it it’s earth to Voyager path.
Dark Star...
Never saw it, thanks............
when i heard
“In the beginning, there was darkness. And the darkness was without form, and void.”
i knew what would happen, it exploded after it said Light...
It was hacked, just like everything else.
Holy smokes! I have a have 15C that I haven't used in eons I am guessing the batteries have been in the unit for 25 years. I just fired it up and it still works. I checked the battery bay and there is no chemical deterioration....
EXCELLENT!!! thank you...
All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.
But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible
relationships.
A timeless interval was spent in doing that.
sounds like the NSA
I have replaced the batteries on my original HP 12C a few times over the years.
I bought a couple more HP 12Cs about 15 or 20 years ago because I really like the calculator and figured they would not be available much longer. The newer ones use a larger battery and feel lighter but are otherwise indistinguishable. I have one in a briefcase and the other in a drawer somewhere. Now I mostly use a 12C emulation app on my cell phone.
HP came out with a replacement for the 12C back in the 1980s, but no one bought it. The 12C has every function you could want in a financial calculator and once you get used to RPN it is much easier and faster to use than regular financial calculators.
That's gotta be a boring job these days.
Voyager isn't going to encounter another solid object for at least 300 years until it reaches the still theoretical Oort Cloud.
I really got into understanding my 15C, but let it slip after computers became affordable..
In a related story, Twitter immediately labeled the Voyager 1 probe as "MAGA Russia disinformation" and shut down the account. Voyager has 14 days to file an appeal.
-PJ
I love it. I’m literally laughing out loud here.
I have to tell people that my little suburb only allows 12 electrons per day through our tower, so my phone isn’t working well.
Theoretically....................
That is of course true. If I’m adding a column of numbers I do it once in excel. Can always check the input. Have to do it 2 or 3 times with the calculator
Update:
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried
MARCH 6, 2024
Nell Greenfieldboyce
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236033493/nasas-voyager-1-spacecraft-is-talking-nonsense-its-friends-on-earth-are-worried
It has Alzheimer’s.....................
It has Alzheimer’s.....................
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