How NASA Scientists Save Voyager 1, Earth’s Farthest Artificial Object?

After a five-month lull, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, the farthest man-made object, is finally sending back useful information about its health and systems, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Monday. Now the team is preparing to send back scientific data as well.

What was the problem with Voyager 1?

The problem started last November when Voyager 1 stopped sending readable scientific and engineering data, even though it seemed to be working fine. NASA’s team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that this was due to a faulty chip in one of the spacecraft’s computers.

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How was Voyager 1 repaired?

The NASA team couldn’t fix it; they had to split the affected code and move it to different parts of the computer. They moved the part that handles the technical data and hoped it would work.

It takes about 22.5 hours for a radio signal to reach Voyager 1, which is more than 15 billion miles from Earth. Then it takes another 22.5 hours to travel back.

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When the mission flight team received a response from the spacecraft on April 20, they confirmed that the change had been successful. This was the first time in five months that they were able to monitor the health and status of the spacecraft.

Now they’re working on moving and fixing the rest of the code.

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Voyager 2, on the other hand, still works as usual.

Where are Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 now?

Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977, and Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977. Voyager 1 is about 15.3 billion miles from Earth, while Voyager 2 is about 12.4 billion miles away. According to NASA, both have reached “interstellar space” and are each continuing their unique journey through space.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to venture into interstellar space, the region between the stars, and the farthest and longest-lived spacecraft ever. Before entering interstellar space, they explored Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.