NASA Engineers Rush to Fix Voyager 1 Malfunction
The Latest Technology of 50 Years Ago
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, famous for being the first man-made object to enter interstellar space, is experiencing a technical issue with its Flight Data Subsystem (FDS), which is one of three computers on board. The FDS is responsible for collecting and combining science and engineering data into a single data packet in binary code, which is then sent back to Earth through the Telemetry Modulation Unit.
In November, NASA received data packets from Voyager 1 that showed a repetitive pattern of 1s and 0s, indicating a potential problem with the FDS. Engineers have been working tirelessly to diagnose the issue, which they suspect is due to memory corruption in the FDS. However, the lack of detailed data from the spacecraft has made it difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem.
When it was developed fifty years ago, the Flight Data Subsystem was a groundbreaking advancement in computing, as it was the first computer to use volatile memory in a spacecraft. In an effort to resolve the issue, Voyager’s ground crew plans to transmit commands to the spacecraft in order to identify the suspected corrupt memory in the FDS computer. This involves modifying the computer to operate in different modes.
The team working on resolving this issue has been expanded to include experts in flight data systems, software, and spacecraft communications. Despite the challenges, the team remains dedicated to reconnecting with Voyager 1 and resolving the technical glitch. Stay tuned for further updates on the Voyager mission.
