NASA’s Voyager-1 spacecraft, which left the Solar System in 2012, has resumed sending signals after a five-month hiatus.
The spacecraft, which is the farthest human-made object in space, began sending usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems on April 18.
The probe and its twin, Voyager-2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space, the region outside the Solar System.
On November 14, 2023, the team at JPL was stunned as the Voyager-1 spacecraft stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth.
The stress came from the fact that the data was blocked even as the spacecraft was still receiving commands from Earth and otherwise operating normally.
The team encountered a setback when they found a malfunctioning chip crucial for storing part of the flight data subsystem (FDS) memory, including vital software code.
FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.
This rendered science and engineering data unusable.
Unable to fix the chip, they opted to relocate the affected code within FDS memory.
However, no single location could accommodate the entire section.
Their solution involved dividing the code into sections and dispersing them throughout FDS memory, ensuring they still functioned cohesively.
They also updated references to the code’s location elsewhere in FDS memory.
Starting with the code managing spacecraft engineering data, they moved it to its new location on April 18.
After a communication delay of over 22 hours, they received confirmation on April 20 that the modification had succeeded.
This enabled the team to check the spacecraft’s health after a five-month hiatus.
In the following weeks, they plan to relocate and adjust other affected FDS software sections, including those for returning science data.
Despite these challenges, the twin Voyager 2 remains operational.
Launched over 46 years ago, the Voyager spacecraft stands as the longest-operating and most distant in history.
