NASA’s Voyager 1 is continuing its journey beyond our Solar System, after being launched 45 years ago. However, this veteran spacecraft has unexpectedly returned mysterious data that has left NASA puzzled.
Illustration of the Voyager spacecraft – (Photo: NASA)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported on May 18 (local time) that while Voyager 1 is operating normally, data from its Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS) does not align with the spacecraft’s movement. This spacecraft appears to be mysteriously confused about its position in space.
The AACS system is crucial for Voyager to send data back to NASA regarding the interstellar environment around it, and the spacecraft’s antenna is always pointed directly toward Earth.
According to Business Insider, Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated: “Both spacecraft are nearly 45 years old, far exceeding what mission planners had predicted.”
NASA confirmed that its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, is operating normally.
Launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets of the Solar System, Voyager 1 is currently about 23.3 billion kilometers from Earth, making it the farthest human-made object. It has continued to function as expected, transmitting information about its journey back to Earth until May 18.
NASA engineers indicated that the spacecraft’s control and communication system is sending randomly generated data, which does not “reflect what is actually happening on the spacecraft.”
Ms. Dodd and her engineering team hope to determine the cause of the spacecraft’s strange data transmission. A significant challenge is that messages from NASA take 20 hours and 33 minutes to reach Voyager 1’s current position. Therefore, a two-way communication exchange between NASA and Voyager 1 takes two days.
