Voyager 1's Communication Breakdown: Engineers Rush to Fix Computer Issue

1 min read
Source: Gizmodo
Voyager 1's Communication Breakdown: Engineers Rush to Fix Computer Issue
Photo: Gizmodo
TL;DR

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and currently over 15 billion miles away from Earth, is experiencing communication issues due to a computer glitch. The spacecraft's flight data system (FDS) and telemetry modulation unit (TMU) are having trouble communicating with each other, resulting in gibberish data being sent to mission control. Engineers are consulting decades-old manuals to fix the 46-year-old mission, but it takes 22.5 hours for commands to reach Voyager 1, making troubleshooting a slow process. Despite these challenges, Voyager 1 remains NASA's longest-operating mission and has traveled farther from Earth than any other spacecraft.

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