Voyager 1 Worries NASA With Eerie Messages Sent To Earth
For several months now, NASA’s Voyager 1 has been sending back incomprehensible code of repeating 1s and 0s, and experts can’t figure out how to fix the spacecraft from 15 billion miles away. Technology aboard the probe dates back to the 1970s when the craft was first launched.
Voyager 1 Is Billions Of Miles From Earth
The clicker you use to lock and unlock your vehicle has more technology inside of it than the Voyager 1 has to work with when communicating with NASA. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched just 16 days apart in the summer of 1977 and have traveled billions of miles away from Earth since their journeys began.
A Groundbreaking Expedition
In its 47 years of service, Voyager 1 has made some groundbreaking accomplishments and substantial additions to the history of our knowledge of space. The probe has flown by Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan (Saturn’s most prominent moon).
Voyager 1 helped NASA learn more about the weather, magnetic fields, and rings of the two gas giants and provided the very first detailed images of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
Voyager Reached Interstellar Space
It is the most distant human-made object from Earth. In August 2012, Voyager 1 officially crossed the heliopause into interstellar space. As further proof of its resilience and longevity, in 2017 (40 years after it launched), the probe’s TCM (trajectory correction maneuver) thrusters were tested for the first time since 1980, and they worked.
No New Data Since December
The spacecraft has served NASA well over its time in service, but it seems the ride may soon be coming to an end. Despite the best efforts of NASA scientists to revive communications with Voyager 1, no decipherable data has been obtained from the craft since December 12, 2023.
In addition to its communication problems, Voyager 1’s radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) will soon run out of power, rendering the craft useless. However, that doesn’t mean NASA has given up on the probe entirely.
NASA is still working diligently to find a solution to their communication issue. They have tried resetting the probe from afar to no avail, given the outdated technology present on the craft. Technology has come a long way since the mid-1970s.
NASA Is Working Around The Clock To Save Voyager
NASA experts are now doing their best to try and get their heads into the same mind frame as the original developers, hoping to see a different solution to the issue with a different perspective. Over the next few months, NASA will continue its efforts to revive Voyager 1, but it’s beginning to look more and more like the end for this historical relic. Stamatios Krimigis (an astronomer who has worked on the Voyager 1 mission from the beginning) stated that his “motto for a long time was 50 years or bust … but we’re sort of approaching that.”
Voyager Is Flying Blind
With only three years until Voyager 1 sees its 50th birthday, NASA hopes to find some glimmer of light with the probe soon. For now, broken communications means that scientists don’t know where exactly the probe is floating or any details about its surroundings. For now, discovery has paused.
