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After a nail - biting four calendar month , NASAhas finally get a comprehendible signaling from its Voyager 1 space vehicle .
Since November 2023 , the almost-50 - year - old spacecraft has been experiencing trouble with its onboard computers . Although Voyager 1 , one of NASA ’s longest - live space missions , has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth , it hasn’tcontained any useable information , which has dumbfound scientist .
Artist’s conception of Voyager 1, the legendary NASA spacecraft that for four months has been experiencing issues with its onboard computer systems, blocking any form of intelligible communication with scientists on Earth.
Now , in response to a program line prompting , or " poke , " institutionalize from Earth on March 1 , NASA has experience a new signal from Voyager 1 that engineer have been capable to decode . Mission scientists trust this information may help them explain the spacecraft ’s late communication job .
" The source of the yield appear to be with one of three onboard computers , the flight data subsystem ( FDS ) , which is responsible for package the science and engineering data before it ’s sent to Earth by the telemetry transition unit , " NASA said in a web log postWednesday ( March 13 ) .
Related : NASA ’s 46 - year - old Voyager 1 probe is no longer transmitting data
On March 1 , as part of seek to detect a solution to Voyager 1 ’s computer issues , NASA sent a command to the FDS on the spacecraft , instructing it to use different sequences in its software parcel , which would effectively intend skirting around any data that may be corrupted .
Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles ( 24 billion kilometers ) from Earth . This means any radiocommunication signals beam from our satellite take 22.5 hours to reach the ballistic capsule , with any response taking the same fourth dimension to be picked up by antenna on Earth .
On March 3 , NASA detect body process from one division of the FDS that differed from the " unreadable data stream " they ’d previously been receive . Four day later , engineer started the heavy task of examine to decode this signal . By March 10 , the squad discovered that the signal comprise a read-out of the full FDS memory . This admit the instructions for what the FDS involve to do , any values in its code that can be changed depending on commands from NASA or the ballistic capsule ’s status , and downloadable scientific discipline or applied science data .
Voyager 1 has ventured far from Earth thanany other human - made object . It was launched in 1977,within week of its matching ballistic capsule , Voyager 2 . The initial aim of the missionary post was to exploreJupiterandSaturn . Yet after almost five decades , and with multitudinous discoveries under their belts , the mission continues beyond the boundaries of thesolar system .
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NASA scientist will now " equate this readout to the one that fare down before the take come up and look for variance in the codification and the variables to potentially find oneself the source of the ongoing takings , " they say in the blog postal service .
However , NASA accentuate that it will take time to ascertain if any of the insights realize from this new signal can be used to solve Voyager 1 ’s long - standing communication issues .
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