NASA’s Voyager 1 Probe Back Online After Decades of Silence
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, the farthest human-made object from Earth, has been revived after a five-year silence. The probe, launched in 1977, had sent only scrambled signals before falling quiet.
The cause of the malfunction was discovered to be a faulty chip that corrupted critical code controlling the spacecraft’s operations. Engineers devised an innovative workaround by rerouting the corrupted data, allowing them to restore communication with the spacecraft.
On April 20, 2024, the team confirmed that Voyager 1 had successfully implemented the patch, and began transmitting readable engineering data once again. The spacecraft is now on track to recover full scientific functionality, enabling the continued transmission of valuable data from a region of space previously inaccessible.
The successful restoration of communication with Voyager 1 serves as a testament to human ingenuity and the determination of NASA engineers. The mission’s continuation is a remarkable achievement, given its age and distance from Earth.
Source: https://glassalmanac.com/a-nasa-probe-thought-lost-at-24-billion-kilometers-unexpectedly-reappears