NASA solves Voyager 1 data glitch mystery, but finds another
By Tariq Malik published about 12 hours ago
The good news: Voyager 1's telemetry is clear again. The weird: Why did it use a dead computer?
An artist's illustration of the Voyager 1 spacecraft in interstellar space. They mystery of its junk data has been solved, NASA says. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA's Voyager 1 probe is finally making sense again in interstellar space.
After months of sending junk data about its health to flight controllers on Earth, the 45-year-old Voyager 1 is once again beaming back clear telemetry data on its status beyond our solar system. NASA knew the problem was somewhere in the spacecraft's attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, which keeps Voyager 1's antenna pointed at Earth. But the solution was surprising.
"The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago, and the computer corrupted the information," NASA officials wrote in an update(opens in new tab) Tuesday (Aug. 30). The rest of the spacecraft was apparently fine, collecting data as it normal.
Once engineers began to suspect Voyager 1 was using a dead computer, they simply sent a command to the probe so its AACS system would use the right computer to phone home. It was a low-risk fix, but time consuming. It takes a radio signal nearly 22 hours to reach Voyager 1, which was 14.6 billion miles (23.5 billion kilometers) from Earth and growing farther by the second as of Aug. 30.
More:
https://www.space.com/voyager-1-data-glitch-solved