After five months, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed sending back data on its onboard systems for the first time since November. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory identified and addressed a malfunction in one of Voyager 1’s onboard computer chips that disrupted data transmission.
“Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally,” NASA wrote in a blog post.
“In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS),” NASA added. “The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.”
Small adjustments to the code were sent over a radio signal through 15 billion miles of interstellar space, taking nearly 45 hours for scientists to hear back from the spacecraft.
Once the chip’s malfunction is corrected, NASA believes scientific data can start funneling back to Earth.
Over the coming weeks, further modifications are planned to fully restore the spacecraft’s ability to transmit science data. Meanwhile, Voyager 2 continues to function normally.
Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.
