Results for: Spacecraft communication

NASA has successfully re-established communication with Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft in human history. The spacecraft had experienced a communications issue for five months, traced to a faulty computer chip. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California reconfigured the spacecraft’s coding to resolve the problem, resulting in the restoration of engineering updates. The team continues to work on recovering science data transmission, which takes over 22 hours to reach Voyager 1’s location over 15 billion miles away in interstellar space.

After months of silence, NASA has successfully reestablished meaningful communication with Voyager 1, the spacecraft farthest from Earth. The spacecraft experienced a data transmission issue last November, prompting flight controllers to implement a coding workaround. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed the success of the fix upon receiving positive engineering updates last week. The restoration of science data transmission remains ongoing. Despite the communication disruption, NASA assures that contact with Voyager 1 was never entirely lost, comparable to a phone call where one party cannot be heard.

After months of indecipherable data from Voyager 1, NASA engineers have restored communication using a creative solution. A memory chip failure caused the issue, but engineers were able to store the affected code elsewhere in the system’s memory. Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft, has been providing valuable insights despite operating beyond its expected lifespan. The team is now working to relocate other affected software parts and expects to receive science data in the coming weeks.

After five months of indecipherable data, NASA engineers have successfully restored communication with Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft in history. Through creative troubleshooting, they diagnosed and fixed a memory issue within the spacecraft’s flight data system. Voyager 1 is now transmitting readable engineering data, with science data expected to be restored in the coming weeks.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, currently cruising in interstellar space, has re-established contact after a five-month communication blackout due to a glitch in November. The spacecraft’s team traced the problem to a single chip in the flight data subsystem, which holds some of the software code for preparing science and engineering data. The team has devised a complex fix involving dividing and storing the code in different places, starting with the code that allows Voyager 1 to package up its engineering data. The team will continue to relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the software in the coming weeks, including those responsible for returning science data. Despite its age, Voyager 1 continues to collect data on interstellar space. The Voyager missions, launched in 1977, are nearing their end, but NASA hopes to keep at least one instrument operating on each spacecraft until around 2025.