We finally know why NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped communicating — scientists are working on a fix

[Admin]

In November 2023, the first spacecraft to journey to interstellar space, Voyager 1, started spouting gibberish. Now, NASA knows why. The team is working on a fix.

We finally know why NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped communicating — scientists are working on a fix : Read more

 

[jcs]

Funny timing for this article, when I am streaming an old Star Trek movie.

So, surely this didn't cause a 3 byte glitch removing the O, Y and A from Voyager's name buffer? Get it?

 

[bwana4swahili]

It is quite amazing it has lasted this long in a space environment.

 

[jcs]

It is quite amazing it has lasted this long in a space environment.

I agree and as a retired Aerospace engineer (Honeywell and Raytheon) I know how PCBs of the era in an orbitial environment can grow whiskers causing shorts in the boards and ICs. Lord knows what Voyager is encountering out there in the Oort cloud. Amazing she's still ticking.

 

[HankySpanky]

So now we know even better for next time. Perhaps a spare chipset that is not redundant but is ready to take over, stored in a protective environment. A task NASA can handle. We'll find out in 100 year or so - if humanity still exists.

 

[jcs]

So now we know even better for next time. Perhaps a spare chipset that is not redundant but is ready to take over, stored in a protective environment. A task NASA can handle. We'll find out in 100 year or so - if humanity still exists.

Non-metallic Molycircs and triple redundancy. It'll take them a long time to upload microcode to patch around the bad memory but I think VGER (!) is salvageable!

 

[Classical Motion]

I'm afraid it might self repair. And download galactic knowledge, then decide we are a danger. And turn around.

 

[jcs]

I'm afraid it might self repair. And download galactic knowledge, then decide we are a danger. And turn around.

 

[jcs]

ROFLOL! And a hot bald chick delivering the bad news!