Since November 2023, Voyager 1Voyager 1 was no longer able to send us scientific data. Worse: the probe no longer spoke in an “intelligible” way. The data she was sending us made no sense.
Problem solved 24 billion km away
This is an impressive technical feat. The teams were able to find the reason for the problem, then resolve it, knowing that it takes several days each time for the commands to be sent from Earth to the probe, and the same time to receive them. So you have to be patient.
The problem was with Voyager’s subsystem responsible for gathering the data to send back to Earth. The teams relocated the code to another part of the subsystem. Problem solved: Voyager 1 has again transmitted scientific data, coming from the four instruments on board (two instruments initially, then the other two today).
Survive in interstellar space
Launched into space in 1977, Voyager 1 is aging. Its energy, provided by the disintegration of radioactive elements, is increasingly weak. Transmitting its data is both complex for the probe but also for the teams who receive it because the signal from Voyager 1 is gradually lost in the surrounding radio noise.
Ed Stone, the scientist behind the legendary Voyager probes, has died
However, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory does not give up and does everything possible to continue collecting unique data, because only the Voyager 1 and 2 probes are beyond our System, in the interstellar medium. Today, only China intends to send probes beyond the Solar systemSolar system.
