NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft Encounters Glitch, Earth Connection Compromised

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft can’t send any science or system data back to Earth right now.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft can’t send any science or system data back to Earth right now. (Photo: Popular Mechanics)

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is in Trouble

The famous Voyager 1 spacecraft recently had a bad problem. It has been farther into interstellar space than any other human-made object. The 46-year-old probe can’t send important science and system data back to Earth because its flight data system is broken. The system that sends data has been sending a pattern of ones and zeros over and over again, even though it can receive orders.

NASA’s Voyager 1 has helped us learn more about the farthest parts of our solar system and interstellar space by sending us pictures and data of planets and celestial bodies that are very far away.

A committed group of NASA engineers is working hard to figure out what’s wrong, which is made harder by the fact that the spacecraft’s legacy hardware is causing problems. Previous problems with Voyager 1, like problems with its attitude control system, show how hard and time-consuming it is to fix these kinds of issues. A long process is needed to make sure that new commands don’t have unintended results, so engineers have to read technical papers from decades ago to understand how the spacecraft works.

READ ALSO: SpaceX Sets The Stage For Mysterious X-37B Mission: US Air Force’s Secret Spaceplane Launches Into The Unknown

According to the report of Space.com, the probe is more than 15 billion miles away from Earth, which makes things even worse. It takes an unbelievable 45 hours to send and receive messages. Even though a software change has been made to fix the glitch and stop problems with telemetry data and residue buildup on the thrusters, it is still very hard to find a solution.

While NASA tries to figure out how to get out of this technical tangle, Voyager 1 keeps going on its way through space, showing how creative and tough people can be when exploring deep space.

READ ALSO: Notifying Stargazers Of The International Space Station That Will Be Visible Until December 6th