NASA’s Voyager 1 Probe Sends Data Back to Earth After Five-Month Silence
In a remarkable achievement, NASA engineers have successfully decoded a signal from Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, which has been silent for the past five months. The probe, launched in 1977, is currently 15 billion miles away and has been sending an indecipherable pattern of code since November 2023.
The team at NASA discovered that 3% of Voyager 1’s memory was corrupted, causing the communication issue. Despite being unable to repair the damaged chip, engineers were able to store the affected code in different areas of the system’s memory and made modifications to successfully receive coherent data on April 20.
Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are the longest-operating spacecraft in history, still exploring interstellar space after more than four decades. Voyager 2, which also experienced a communication blackout recently, had its issue resolved using a unique technique.
The team is thrilled to have reestablished communication with Voyager 1 and is looking forward to receiving valuable science data in the coming weeks. The resilience and longevity of the Voyager spacecraft continue to exceed expectations, providing invaluable information about the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond.
For more updates on the Voyager missions and other groundbreaking space exploration news, stay tuned to The Bib Theorists.
