It’s been several months since one of humanity’s most successful spacecraft, the Voyager 1 probe, stopped talking to us, and although they remain somewhat hopeful, Voyager mission scientists are preparing for the worst: A farewell.
“It’s sad and disappointing that the spacecraft is still operating but quiet,” Voyager mission assurance manager Bruce Wagoner told Space.com about the group’s current morale. “Even though we know the end could come at any time, it’s never easy to lose a spacecraft. Especially when Traveler 1“
This box-like machine, with its pearly white, conical disk that makes it look like a giant speaker in space, has been sending stunning data for more than 45 years. And I mean stunning. Not only is it the first vehicle to enter interstellar space space (and hence farthest man-made object non-stop), but also from the identification of new Jovian moons, the discovery of another Saturn ring, and solar systemThe first and only “family portrait” featuring our eclectic gang of planets.
Relating to: NASA’s interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft isn’t in great shape – here’s what we know
It’s also why we’re strong Pale Blue Dot An image that frequently resurfaces on the internet as a reminder of our insignificance, or rather our importance, depending on your perspective. Like carl sagan his famous quote, “Look at this spot again. This is this. This is home. This is us.”
All this time, Voyager 1’s cosmic letters arrived as computer messages often do, transmitting 0s and 1s in precise patterns. With a little manual labor, such strings can be translated into words the human mind can grasp, and scientists are always excited to unwrap a new package of Voyager 1’s binary code.
But then, in September of last year, 0’s and 1’s stopped making sense.
“Effectively, the call between the spacecraft and the spacecraft Soil “There was still connectivity, but Voyager’s ‘voice’ was replaced by a monotone dial tone,” the engineering team told Space.com.
Mistakes have happened to Voyager 1 before; for example, in 2022 the probe’s “attitude expression and control system” exhibited some complications, but this time it looks like a complete disaster. Even though it’s been months since the problem first appeared, the team still hasn’t been able to fix it and is actually still searching for the root of the problem.
So is it so? time To raise the final curtain on Voyager 1?
In this respect, scientists are not completely sure yet. They continue to work to correct the situation and are very diligent in this regard. Voyager mission engineer Kareem Badaruddin told Space.com: “The crew is tired because we’ve been at a fast pace for 3 months, but we keep going because we have ideas and hope.”
But what is your team? is One thing is certain: even if Voyager 1 succumbs to its injuries, the journey will certainly not be over.
“Don’t forget Traveler 2 still going strong! “If we can keep a spacecraft operational, the mission will continue,” the crew said.
Voyager 2 is actually very similar to Voyager 1 started 16 days before its counterpart on August 20, 1977. Voyager 1 moved away faster because it had a more efficient route. asteroid belt, He literally left his partner behind It was launched on December 15, 1977, and subsequently became the first probe to exit the gravitational influence of our solar system. Voyager 2 has many accomplishments under its belt; For example, it is still the only spacecraft to visit the outer planets. Uranus And Neptune.
The Voyagers’ shared mission was simply to explore; diving into the solar system, scanning for moons and planets beyond our own, and trying to go where no spacecraft has gone before.
“Voyagers are the only spacecraft that do exploration. interstellar space “There are no missions that can collect the same data on-site and remotely,” the team said.
They’re certainly doing their job, and I hope Voyager 1 has a little more power left. But even if it doesn’t, scientists want to make it clear that Voyager 2 will continue to keep the torch burning.
Medical chart of Voyager 1
In December 2023The Voyager 1 team announced that the malfunction on the spacecraft was caused by one of the onboard computers, the Flight Data System, or FDS. There used to be a replacement FDS, but it stopped working in 1981.
“Due to this issue, scientists are unable to receive any scientific data or updates on the health and status of the probe, including information that could reveal the source of the problem,” the team explains.
Perhaps the biggest problem of this dilemma arises here. One of the FDS’s main duties is to basically keep Voyager 1’s medical records up to date, then work with what’s known as a telemetry modulation unit, or TMU, to tell ground control what’s needed. continues. However, since the FDS itself is faulty, medical record transfer cannot occur.
“The team tried various ‘simple’ fixes, such as resetting the FDS to where it was before the problem started,” engineers said. “This week, the team will send more commands to the spacecraft to gather information about the status of onboard systems. In the coming weeks, the team expects to begin making more aggressive attempts to reset various systems that could affect the FDS.”
As of now, the team believes that a possible cause of the problem has to do with the FDS’s memory being corrupted by a mechanism that causes its binary code to produce incomprehensible patterns. However, engineers are also considering the fact that this could be a physical hardware malfunction. After all, Voyager 1’s technicians have been trying for decades. Something could have broken in terms of hardware or software. In fact, last year scientists beamed some interceptor software patches to both Voyagers from billions of miles away.
“The anomaly made us study and learn about the spacecraft; much of the information that was forgotten as it was not needed for many years was recovered,” Badaruddin said. said.
In a slightly more exaggerated scenario, the team suggests that some kind of energetic particle may have hit the spacecraft. If so, something known as “bit flipping” may have occurred; This means that a 0 in the code accidentally becomes a 1 or vice versa.
Still, the team is leaving all possibilities open. This is because it may not even be FDS that is actually causing the problems. This theory is the one most likely to arise from the data engineers currently have. “It is very difficult to isolate the source of the problem since no engineering data is available,” they said.
Moreover, and not at all promisingly, remember that Voyager 1’s greatest achievement was that it was the first probe to travel into interstellar space, where it was surrounded by untouched blankets of stardust and darkness? This is it oversized is far away from us. This means it takes a very (very) long time to contact him. Specifically, at the time of writing, Voyager 1 was more than 162 AU from Earth; One AU is equal to the distance between our planet and our planet. Sun. It takes approximately 45 hours in total to complete a forward-backward command with this spacecraft. Therefore, “this process could take months,” the team said.
But in a silver lining, scientists have confirmed that Voyager 1 exhibits a sound traveling along a wavelength known as a carrier tone, which does not carry information but acts like a heartbeat. At least we know he’s alive.
“The spacecraft appears to be healthy other than the current problem. So if we can fix this, Voyager 1 will be able to continue its science mission,” the team said. “But the Voyagers are already working way, way beyond what anyone expected of them. We know the more time passes, the more problems will arise. We’ll keep them going as long as we can, but we know they do too.” It won’t last forever.”
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“If V1 had not achieved this? I would have been very proud; the task far exceeded the designers’ expectations,” Badaruddin said. “But it’s hard to really think about it because we still believe we can recover.”
Unfortunately, there are doubts that Voyager 1 has returned to its healthy state; But even if he does not return and is left alone to drift in space, we can be sure that his legacy remains firmly established in our books, in our hearts, and in our hearts. our history.
Then it’s up to you, Voyager 2.