On December 12, 2023, NASA reported a concerning glitch affecting Voyager 1, the spacecraft that has ventured beyond our solar system into interstellar space. Launched over 45 years ago, Voyager 1’s journey has been marked by significant achievements, such as discovering new moons around Jupiter, a new ring around Saturn, and sending the Golden Record into space carrying sounds and images of Earth.
However, the spacecraft is now facing an uncertain future due to a technical issue that has disrupted its ability to send data back to Earth.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is working to resolve a problem with Voyager 1’s onboard computer, the Flight Data System (FDS). Currently, the FDS is failing to communicate properly with the telemetry modulation unit (TMU), halting the science and engineering data transmission to Earth. Despite this, the team can still send instructions to the spacecraft, now approximately 162 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth, or 162 times the distance of Earth from the Sun.
The issue with the FDS was first noticed when data transmission from the spacecraft started becoming unintelligible. The FDS’s main function is to gather and package the spacecraft’s health and status data for transmission back to Earth. However, a suspected memory corruption within the FDS makes it difficult for engineers to diagnose and fix the problem. This situation is particularly challenging because the backup FDS ceased functioning while “Betty Davis Eyes” was still topping the charts in 1981.
According to Ars Technica, the problem might lie in the FDS’s memory, possibly due to a corrupted bit. However, pinpointing the exact location of the corruption is complicated without detailed telemetry data. This glitch is among the most serious the mission has encountered.
Voyager 1’s predicament highlights the challenges of managing and troubleshooting a spacecraft that relies on technology from when Atari was the latest-greatest thing on the market in the 1970s. The spacecraft, moving away from the Sun at 38,000 miles per hour, continues to function, but the current computer problem prevents the mission team from obtaining crucial information about its status.
To address the issue, the Voyager team plans to send commands to the spacecraft to isolate the corrupted memory in the FDS. This involves exploring different operational modes that have not been used for decades. The current efforts to troubleshoot and resolve its technical issues underscore the dedication of NASA’s engineers to extend the lifespan of science’s most distant instrument.
