NASA’s Voyager is sending screwy messages from interstellar area

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is sending again some funky knowledge from interstellar area that is leaving NASA engineers scratching their heads.

Readouts on the orientation of the 1970s-era area probe now look like randomly generated or do not mirror any potential state of affairs the spacecraft may very well be in, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory officers stated this week.

The problematic knowledge are coming from the so-called “perspective articulation and management system,” or AACS, the onboard gear that measures, experiences, and adjustments the place of the car in area. The system retains an antenna pointed at Earth, which permits it to ship knowledge residence.

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The brand new weird scenario calls into query the longer term for the long-duration mission. Provided that Voyager 1 continues to return knowledge from its science devices, all indicators counsel the controls are nonetheless working, although the information would not make sense, the U.S. area company stated. It in any other case appears to be functioning usually.

“A thriller like that is type of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” stated Suzanne Dodd, challenge supervisor for Voyager 1 and a pair of in a NASA assertion launched Wednesday.

Each Voyager 1 and a pair of are virtually 45 years outdated, which is much past their authentic life expectancy. Interstellar area is a high-radiation setting that no spacecraft has ever flown in earlier than, she stated, so surprises are virtually anticipated to come up.

Voyager 1 is 14.5 billion miles from Earth. Which means gentle takes 20 hours and 33 minutes to journey that distance. In different phrases, the lag between getting a message to Voyager and receiving a response is about two days.

“There are some massive challenges for the engineering workforce,” Dodd stated. “However I feel if there is a solution to remedy this subject with the [telemetry], our workforce will discover it.”

Voyager 1 has been exploring the photo voltaic system since 1977, together with its counterpart, Voyager 2. They have been initially meant to review Jupiter and Saturn, their moons, and Saturn’s rings. For the two-planet mission, they have been constructed to final simply 5 years.

With their preliminary success, engineers doubled the missions’ aims to incorporate two extra big planets, Uranus and Neptune. Between the 2, the spacecraft have explored 4 planets, 48 moons, and a number of planetary magnetic fields and rings.

The spacecraft generate about four fewer watts of energy yearly, limiting the variety of methods they’ll function. The mission workforce has turned off gear to order energy. No science devices have been powered down but. The purpose is to maintain the Voyagers working past 2025, in response to NASA.