They can continue receiving information from the Voyager 1 probe

2024/04/29 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Programazioa
• Astronautika
• Astronomia

In November 2023, NASA engineers stopped receiving information from the Voyager 1 probe for the first time. Like Voyager -2, it was launched into space in 1977 and has subsequently been sending information. Her sister had a cut, but she also managed to recover her connection. Both have come as far as a man-made apparatus has traveled: they have managed to leave the heliosphere, although they still remain in the environment delimited by the gravitational field of the Sun.

The data sent during the trip was fundamental to the solar system. That’s why, since they stopped receiving Voyager -1 data, they’ve been working to fix it. First they had to find where the mistake was. Apparently, the computer in charge of packing the data for shipment was broken, in particular one of the memory chips was damaged. Therefore, it has been reprogrammed not to have to use it. After five months of suspension, telemetric aggregates have been recovered and, in short, scientific information is expected to be received again.

NASA has considered it a great achievement to have solved. It should be borne in mind that the mission was scheduled to last for five years and has therefore beaten all records. Along the way, the Voyager probes have become popular thanks, among other things, to the photograph entitled “a blue dot” and to the history of the golden disc.