🛰️ Hello again! Voyager 1 begins transmitting to Earth after five months of silence

• Voyager 1 is humanity's most distant spacecraft, about 24 billion kilometers from Earth.
• NASA engineers managed to fix a communication error using creative solutions.
• The first data received shows that Voyager 1 is in good condition and functioning properly.

NASA solves the Voyager 1 puzzle

Voyager 1, humanity's most distant spacecraft, which is now about 24 billion kilometers from Earth, has recently started transmitting data again after five months of silence.

The problems began in November 2023 when Voyager 1's telemetry modulation unit began sending a repeated and incomprehensible code sequence. Although the space probe continued to send radio signals, the accompanying data was not usable. After months of troubleshooting and testing, the team sent a command on March 1 to get the system to run different software sequences, which eventually led to a solution.

On March 3, the team noticed anomalous activity in the data, which became the clue they needed to begin solving the problem. It turned out that three percent of the spacecraft's memory was damaged. A single chip that stored part of the system's memory was not functioning properly. The problem is assumed to have been caused either by wear and tear or an energetic particle from space.
Since there was no way to repair the chip directly, the team decided to move the affected code to other parts of the memory.

Results and continued exploration

After relocating the code, the engineers sent a radio signal to Voyager 1 on April 18 to instruct it on the new memory locations. On April 20, the spacecraft confirmed that the changes were successful and usable engineering data could once again be received.

Voyager 1 continues to be an important source of knowledge and inspiration, despite the challenges that aging technology in deep space presents. The team is now preparing to restore other affected parts of the system's software and looks forward to receiving scientific data that can provide further insights into our solar system.

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