Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth due to computer issue | CNN
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NASA’s 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a computer glitch that prevents it from returning science data to Earth from the solar system’s outer reaches.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a computer glitch that’s causing a bit of a communication breakdown between the 46-year-old probe and its mission team on Earth.

  • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.eeEnglish
    307·
    1 year ago

    For those who didn’t read the article, voyager 1 is still sending and transmitting data. It’s stuck in a loop sending the same packets to Earth on repeat but it is receiving commands just fine. It’s not completely dark.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
      107·
      1 year ago

      That’s fantastic, that means all they have to do is reset some components and it should restore functionality. I say should, it’s still a scary thing to turn on/off components om a satellite bcz you aren’t guaranteed they’ll come on. Nasa people usually prefer soft resets to hard resets of components, but we’ll see what happens.

      One of the satellites I worked on had to have a software update to do a soft reset of a component every time it tried to write certain data. It was really scary bcz we thought we had lost one of our redundancies right after launch, which would have sucked.

      But, we didn’t. Anyway, just wanted to give a little bit of insight into what the FOT might be thinking about while they’re trying to recover the satellite to nominal state.

      • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.eeEnglish
        66·
        1 year ago

        Yeah I got very sad when I saw the headline and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Voyager 1’s death will be far sadder than most public figures. Maybe any.

        • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
          35·
          1 year ago

          Same, for a moment I was really concerned. Voyager is like a lifetime achievement for humanity at this point. When it stops communicating its going to be a big loss for the scientific community, and population as a whole. I’m not looking forward to hearing about its loss of functionality in the next decade or so.

        • gazter@aussie.zoneEnglish
          10·
          1 year ago

          I don’t know if I would consider Voyager to be ‘dead’ if it stops transmitting.

          If I put a message in a bottle, with a blinky light on it, then throw it into the ocean, the message is still there even if the blinky light goes out.

      • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        It takes 45 hours and that’s a good question.

        Perhaps there are multiple distinct channels with one for command responses and another for scientific data?

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Ideally it was an update issue and it’s fixable. However I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a hardware failure due to radiation or something similar. That said, Voyager1 has power only until 2025 or so, since RTGs are designed to last that much. So even if the issue is fixed, its life will only expand by few years. Also, the fact it relies on nuclear power means none of the new stuff will last as long since they stopped using them some time ago due to fear from nuclear energy.

        • MeanEYE@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          Am thinking people were mostly worried if rocket explodes during liftoff. Then again people also are completely clueless about radiation in general, especially smokers.

          • MrShankles@reddthat.comEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            As a smoker: I’m not clueless, I just don’t love myself more than the addiction. But I’m getting there, cause breathing “easily” is an under-rated pleasure, when compared to… not breathing that well

            It can take time to break the mental stuff before breaking the habit, regardless of understood risk

            Now magnets though… I’m at a complete fucking loss

            • MeanEYE@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              My point is that not many people know that tobacco contains lead-210 and polonium-210. This is why waping is safer, even though it still carries health risks it doesn’t have radioactive elements which deposit in your lungs. And it’s not a negligible amount of radiation. You’d be safer living next to Chernobyl plant before it was contained than smoking a pack a day. Do yourself a favor and switch to electronic stuff.

          • Meowoem@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            One of the main people who raised concern about rockets full of nuclear material exploding above populated areas was mitchio kaku. He certainly has a good few clues about radiation and nuclear physics.

      • Elbrar@pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        RTGs are still used for outer solar system missions. Not enough light for solar panels. Hell, even the Perseverance Mars rover, which was launched in 2020, has an RTG.