Scientist Working hard t Restore Voyager 1
Voyager 1, the farthest human-made object in space, experienced a challenge in relaying data back to Earth in late 2023.
The probe, launched in 1977, is a pioneer in interstellar exploration. However, engineers noticed a disruption in its ability to transmit scientific and operational data last year.
Investigations revealed an issue with the Flight Data Subsystems (FDS), responsible for collecting and packaging data from Voyager 1's instruments for transmission. Normally, the FDS prepares the data for the telemetry modulation unit and radio transmitter to send it back to Earth.
In an effort to bring the spacecraft back to life, scientists suspected corrupted memory within the FDS. They sent a command to the probe to retrieve a memory readout, confirming about 3% of the memory was corrupted, causing the communication issues.
It is is not clear what led to the corrupt memory. One of the possible causes is a single faulty chip, potentially damaged by a space particle or simply worn out after over four decades of operation.
The good news is that engineers are confident they can find a way to work around the faulty memory and restore the FDS functionality. This would allow Voyager 1 to resume sending valuable scientific data back to Earth, although it might take some time to implement such a solution.
