Have aliens hijacked Voyager 2 spacecraft?

The Daily Telegraph (Australia) ^ | 5/12/10 | The Daily Telegraph

[Braak]

IT left Earth 33 years ago, now it's claimed the Voyager 2 spacecraft may have been hijacked by aliens after sending back data messages NASA scientists can't decode.

NASA installed a 12-inch disk containing music and greetings in 55 languages in case intelligent extraterrestrial life ever found it.

But now the spacecraft is sending back what sounds like an answer: Signals in an unknown data format!

The best scientific minds have so far not been able to decipher the strange information – is it a secret message?

Alien expert Hartwig Hausdorf said:"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth" Read more in Bild

Engineers are working to solve the data transmissions from the Voyager 2 spacecraft near the edge of the solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said today.

The spacecraft late last month began sending science data 8.6 billion miles to Earth in a changed format that mission managers could not decode.

Engineers have since instructed Voyager 2 to only transmit data on its own health and status while they work on the problem.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, explored the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and kept on going. Nearly 33 years later, they are the most distant human-made objects.

Voyager 1 is 10.5 billion miles from Earth and in about five years is expected to pass through the heliosphere, a bubble the sun creates around the solar system, and enter interstellar space.

Voyager 2 will follow after that.

[MarkeyD]

Maybe it says.
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE."

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“All your base are belong to us. You will snarfle the Garthog!”

[Eagle Eye]

Space is big.

Astronomical, in fact.

[Oratam]

Can you believe we sent this out there with a message from Kurt Waldheim? “Greetings alien friends . . . deese eese Koort Valdheim. Vahts shakin’ baby?”

[Braak]

Really, Really Big, I mean you can’t imagine HOW big!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The best scientific minds have so far not been able to decipher the strange information

Occam's Razor;

The messages aren't in code. They are simply garbled data.

[Braak]

Yeah, it probably is, but it is worth having some fun...

[r9etb]

Interesting. I don’t buy data corruption. They know what data corruption looks like.

Oh, pooh. It's almost certainly a hardware problem affecting the way that information is modulated onto the signal. 33 year old circuitry exposed to hard cosmic radiation ... eventually you're going to get hit in a sensitive spot.

[Jonah Hex]

Yeah, it probably is, but it is worth having some fun...

[reagan_fanatic]

The messages aren't in code. They are simply garbled data.

Exactly.

I've had computer programs that have crashed on me that resulted in a bunch of nonsensical characters that made no sense whatsoever. To my knowledge, my computer has never been hijacked by aliens.

[Captain Beyond]

Space ping bump

[Eagle Eye]

uh...out-of-this-world big?

[freebird5850]

It’s not hijacked...it’s broken, simple.

[lonevoice]

4-8-15-16-23-42

[Joe Boucher]

Ought get some of those American Indians from WWII back at work.

[nonsporting]

DBE=Double Bit Error. Some hardware can correct for single bit errors/upsets, but not more than one.

[Responsibility2nd]

Why hasn't anyone asked this guy yet?

 

[BenKenobi]

Comment of the day.

[BenKenobi]

Heckuva pun.

[Lexinom]

I think you’re right. Time to send a repairman out to perform maintenance.