Posted on 05/31/2024 2:51:47 PM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
Voyager 1 is once again returning data from two of four science instruments onboard.
Things are looking better for one of NASA’s longest running deep space missions. After a several-month period of problems, engineers have announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft is not only back online but also transmitting useful data from two of four science instruments. Work is now underway to bring the remaining two instruments up to operational status.
Problems began last November, when Voyager 1 suddenly began sending a repeating gibberish signal instead of the science and engineering data it typically sends. Troubleshooting on the 46-year-old spacecraft revealed the culprit: a memory chip in one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers was corrupted, perhaps due to a strike from a speedy charged particle known as a galactic cosmic ray. The corrupted chip in turn prevented communication with one of the probe's subsystems, known as the telemetry modulation unit.
The Space Flight Operations Facility in Pasadena, California, which processes the signals sent from Voyager 1 as well as other spacecraft throughout the solar system, has changed a lot between 1964 and 2021. (Voyager 1 launched in 1977.)
Without the ability to replace the chip, the team instead focused on a software-based workaround, moving affected code elsewhere. A key challenge was to find space to move the code, because no spot was large enough to hold the entire affected piece. The team broke the affected code into pieces and relocated them to different positions in the computer, while ensuring the code could still function as a whole. Also, any reference points to the affected code needed to be updated.
The first test of this approach was to focus on code for the spacecraft's engineering data. That modification was done on April 18th. Voyager 1 is currently 163 astronomical units away from Earth, and a signal takes 22.5 hours (45 hours round trip) to reach the spacecraft. The team thus had to wait two days to see if the fix had taken hold. When they finally saw that it had worked on April 20th, they once again had access to the general status of the spacecraft.
Additional updates allowed the spacecraft to resume sending back science data on May 17th from two of its instruments. Voyager 1’s magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem are now back to returning useful data.
Engineers are currently working to get two other systems back online: the low-energy charged particle instrument and the cosmic ray subsystem. Six other instruments are either no longer operational or were switched off after the spacecraft’s Saturn encounter in 1980.
Very proud, indeed. Thanks!
No. She is out of our solar system. She’s interstellar, baby!
I see estimates of anywhere from next year to 2036 before the batteries die. There is no fixing that.
astronautical engineer
Never heard that.
I’m a mechanical nginr.
It sure would be cool if NASA decided to design a space probe with the mission of specifically leaving the solar system that’s nuclear-powered and utilizes the most advanced Hall Effect thruster/ion engine possible to really move as fast as possible. Have it pass by as many planets and planetoids as possible for warm up observations on its way out to the Kuiper Belt to observe KBOs and then out to the Oort Cloud.
The other observation instruments would deal with measurements within the heliosphere, the termination shock boundary and heliosheath, and then interstellar medium.
Thanks!
Like Indy Car Racing,,,
Most Folks don’t have a Clue?
.
My Bad.
We can call ourselves anything we want, as long as we can spel it.
Circa 1967 I was using a slide rule in physics class for tests. Circa 1974 (I had dropped out for a few years) I was using a very expensive hand held calculator. Circa 1983 (I returned to school for a second degree) I had a hand held computer that was cheap and good. It had more computing power than our NASA Apollo computers for the launches to the moon in 1969 and cost less than 100 dollars.
Not dying, just transforming into isotopes of lighter elements like uranium, neptunium, americium, and eventually lead.
Plutonium 238 has a half-life of 87 years. The power output of the thermocouples has fallen over the years so V1 doesn’t generate enough wattage to operate all the instruments at once so they shut down all but a few. And you are correct, there will probably be a failure on a critical component before the power runs out.
Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting
My error as I was looking at the wrong isotope. Much thanks for the correction. That is what I like about Free Republic. Our errors are immediately pointed out by other posters. This does not happen in the main stream media also known as propaganda central.
Will the 2 Voyagers’ miles from Earth numbers ever catch up to the US federal deficit numbers, or is the deficit increasing faster than the Voyager moving through Interstellar space at 30,000 mph?
The reboot works all the time.
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