NASA engineers managed to fully restore communication with the 47-year-old Voyager 1 probe after another failure (3 photos)

The device, which flew almost 25 billion km from Earth, is transmitting scientific data again





NASA specialists were able to restore communication with the interplanetary research probe Voyager 1 after a failure in the main transmitter of the device in October.

Voyager 1 was launched into space more than 47 years ago, in September 1977. By now, the probe has moved away from Earth by a record 24.9 billion kilometers. Its twin, Voyager 2, launched 16 days earlier and on a different trajectory, is now about 20.8 billion kilometers from our planet. The Voyagers are the only remaining spacecraft that have left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space. During their work, both probes have collected a colossal amount of data that has helped expand our understanding of the solar system and its immediate surroundings.

Voyager 1's main X-band radio transmitter turned off in October after NASA decided to turn on one of the probe's heaters. This was done to slightly warm up Voyager's four functioning scientific instruments, which were not originally designed to operate in extremely cold temperatures, but turned out to be more resilient than expected. However, due to a power shortage, the probe automatically triggered a system to turn off the power to secondary devices. The problem is that all of Voyager's truly secondary instruments and systems have long been de-energized, so the main transmitter became the "victim" of the emergency shutdown.

As a result, Voyager 1 switched to a backup transmitter that operates in the S-band and consumes less energy. Given the distance the probe is from Earth, it was impossible to receive telemetry data and readings from the remaining instruments through it. Fortunately, in mid-November, engineers managed to restore the operation of Voyager 1's main transmitter, and by the end of the month, specialists had almost completely returned the probe to the state it was in before turning on the heater. In particular, the team managed to restart the synchronization system of Voyager's three onboard computers.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert the thermal energy released during the decay of particles of plutonium-238 loaded into them into electricity. As the isotopes decay, the power of the RTGs gradually decreases, so in the foreseeable future both probes are at risk of a critical energy deficit, however, according to current forecasts, the Voyagers will most likely be able to operate at least until their 50th anniversary.

Previous communication failure

Due to the probe's advanced age, Voyager 1's malfunctions are becoming more frequent. For example, in mid-November last year, the device unexpectedly began transmitting scientific data and telemetry indicators in an unreadable form.

Engineers concluded that the failure occurred in the FDS (Flight Data Subsystem) computer, which is responsible for forming data packets before sending them to Earth. It turned out that one of the memory chips, which stored important elements of the FDS software, failed.



The project team is pleased with the successful download of telemetry from Voyager 1

To restore the computer's operation, specialists decided to write the lost code to another memory chip, but none of the remaining chips had enough free space. For this reason, the FDS program had to be restored in parts so that the computer could run the updated code without errors.

In April 2024, Voyager 1 began transmitting telemetry data correctly to Earth. In mid-May, engineers managed to restore data transmission from two scientific instruments installed on the spacecraft, and after additional efforts, the two remaining instruments began sending data again. Six more instruments on the probe (like on Voyager 2) were turned off earlier in order to save energy.



Voyager 1 (literally "Wanderer") is an American space probe exploring the Solar System since September 5, 1977. The primary mission of the Voyager space program was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 1 was the first space probe to take detailed pictures of the moons of these planets. After completing its primary mission, it embarked on a secondary mission to explore the outer regions of the solar system, including the Kuiper Belt and the edge of the heliosphere. Wikipedia