NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no contact

[Admin]

On Saturday, April 5, Voyager 1 finally "phoned home" and updated its NASA operating team about its health. The interstellar explorer is back in touch after five months of sending back nonsense data.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no contact : Read more

 

[Robb62]

'V'ger must contact the creator.

 

[Holy HannaH!]

Couldn't help but think that "repair" sounded extremely similar to the mechanics of DNA and the evolution of life.

 

[Torbjorn Larsson]

*Applause* indeed, thanks to the Voyager teams for the hard work!

 

[SpaceSpinner]

I notice that the article says that it has been in space for 35 years. Either I have gone back in time 10 years, or their AI is off by 10 years. V-*ger has been captured!

 

[evw]

On Saturday, April 5, Voyager 1 finally "phoned home" and updated its NASA operating team about its health. The interstellar explorer is back in touch after five months of sending back nonsense data.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no contact : Read more

I'm incredibly grateful for the persistence and dedication of the Voyagers' teams and for the amazing accomplishments that have kept these two spacecrafts operational so many years beyond their expected lifetimes. V-1 was launched when I was 25 years young; I was nearly delirious with joy. Exploring the physical universe captivated my attention while I was in elementary school and has kept me mesmerized since. I'm very emotional writing this note, thinking about what amounts to a miracle of technology and longevity in my eyes. BRAVO!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE PAST & PRESENT!!!

 

[SpaceSpinner]

I'm incredibly grateful for the persistence and dedication of the Voyagers' teams and for the amazing accomplishments that have kept these two spacecrafts operational so many years beyond their expected lifetimes. V-1 was launched when I was 25 years young; I was nearly delirious with joy. Exploring the physical universe captivated my attention while I was in elementary school and has kept me mesmerized since. I'm very emotional writing this note, thinking about what amounts to a miracle of technology and longevity in my eyes. BRAVO!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE PAST & PRESENT!!!

Back then, I never thought the Voyager Project would still be going on this far into the future. It is what got me interested in space in the first place, along with my father being in the United States Air Force Security Service. He knew a number of Astronauts from the Gemini and Apollo programs. I met a couple, but I was just a kid. I now photograph planets, stars, the moon, and the Space Station when it goes over our area.

 

[EBairead]

I presume it's Fortran. Well done all.

 

[pennyturtle]

I notice that the article says that it has been in space for 35 years. Either I have gone back in time 10 years, or their AI is off by 10 years. V-*ger has been captured!

I had to pause when I first read it, but I believe they were referring to the 35 years it took from launch in 1977 to hitting interstellar space in 2012. That's why they then mention V2 taking an extra 6 years, till 2018 to leave the sun's influence.

 

[TheCoolBrit]

I notice that the article says that it has been in space for 35 years. Either I have gone back in time 10 years, or their AI is off by 10 years. V-*ger has been captured!

They need to update to fix this error. NASA engineers have incredibly fixed a 'work around' for the V1 memory.
Its amazing how V1 is still not one light day away, Space is SO SO BIG.

 

[Poisson Volant]

I presume it's Fortran. Well done all.

That was my first programming language! But it's more likely they used assembler or custom code to save storage. And yes, I remember moving bits and bytes while being careful to avoid "collisions". Protected memory wasn't always a thing back then.

 

[DrRaviSharma]

I was just finishing my work at NASA HQ when Voyager 1 was being launched and it used the well proven space usable technologies available in the 1970's. NASA's first two public Satellites for Earth Observations were also designed and data as images studied by us in the same time frame.

Looking at Future, the future interstellar spacecraft have to use fusion, fission, ion engines, or something like them (very energetic) if robotic probes are needed for actual environmental samples and in-situ measurements that our projected observers as next generations of JWST can not observe.

Furthermore not knowing the non-EM communications technologies today that could be faster such as Gravitational, Quantum and other information reception for conveying to Earth, one would need such capabilities if the human generations sending and receiving are same because we know the EM measured vastness of space that is enormous and also we are exploring Astrobiology?

Ravi
(Dr. Ravi Sharma, Ph.D. USA)
NASA Apollo Achievement Award
ISRO Distinguished Service Awards
Former MTS NASA HQ MSEB Apollo
Former Scientific Secretary ISRO HQ
Ontolog Board of Trustees
Particle and Space Physics
Senior Enterprise Architect
SAE Fuel Cell Tech Committee voting member for 20 years.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/drravisharma

 

[Zoomer88]

I presume it's Fortran. Well done all.

Why do you think that? I'm almost 100% sure it's ASM. I don't think Fortran gives you 100% control over memory addressing.

 

[billslugg]

I studied Fortran in college. It was used for all scientific work. One day I saw a guy with a thick printout of nothing but ones and zeros. I asked him what it was and he said "Assembly Language". I said "Why do you do that", he said it is the most efficient possible way to program.