NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has provided usable data for the first time in over five months, giving hope for the 46-year-old mission to resume normal operations. Mission control received data about the health and status of Voyager 1’s engineering systems after engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory located a single problematic chip causing the spacecraft to send unusable data.
To address the issue, engineers decided to divide the affected code into sections and store them in different places in the spacecraft’s memory. They successfully relocated the code responsible for packaging engineering data and plan to relocate other affected portions of software related to science data in the coming weeks.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 ventured into interstellar space in August 2012, becoming the first human-made object to do so. Along with its twin probe, Voyager 2, the Voyager missions are the longest-running in history and continue to operate despite occasional communication glitches.
This recent breakthrough in restoring Voyager 1’s data transmission capabilities marks a significant milestone in the ongoing success of the mission. Stay tuned for more updates on the Voyager spacecraft as engineers work to ensure their continued operation and exploration of the cosmos.
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