Approximately 7 months after the Voyager 1 spacecraft encountered issues, NASA has successfully repaired the data transmission system and is now receiving usable signals from all 4 scientific instruments on board.
The interstellar probe Voyager 1 is transmitting meaningful data from all 4 scientific instruments, as reported by Live Science on June 17. This achievement follows 7 months of troubleshooting and problem-solving by NASA’s engineering team.
Voyager 1 operating in interstellar space. (Photo: NASA).
The spacecraft experienced issues in November 2023, when it began sending nonsensical signals due to a technical problem with one of its three onboard computers. Engineers addressed part of the malfunction in April by sending commands to the Flight Data System (FDS) of Voyager 1, which is responsible for packaging scientific data before transmitting it back to Earth. This command prompted Voyager 1 to send its first readable message after 4 months, allowing the engineering team to pinpoint the source of the problem.
After identifying that the malfunction occurred in a computer chip, the engineering team devised a solution to adjust the FDS coding from tens of billions of kilometers away and began restoring operational status for the instruments on Voyager. Two of the spacecraft’s four scientific instruments continued to provide readable data in May. With further adjustments, all four instruments are now functioning normally. These instruments are responsible for collecting information on plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles in interstellar space.
While the data system of Voyager 1 is back online, the engineering team will need to continue working to fully restore the spacecraft. For example, they will need to resynchronize the timing software, allowing all three onboard computers to process commands simultaneously. The engineers will also conduct maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which stores data for the plasma wave instrument.
Voyager 1 is currently traveling through interstellar space, over 24 billion kilometers away from Earth. Interstellar space is the region beyond the heliosphere, the protective bubble created by the solar wind and magnetic field. The spacecraft is so far away that engineers must wait 22.5 hours for their commands to reach Voyager and an additional 22.5 hours for a response. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have been traveling through space for nearly 47 years. They are NASA’s longest-operating spacecraft and the farthest human-made objects still in existence.
