Mystery issue experienced on NASA's Voyager 1 probe from 1977

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

The Voyager 1 probe is still exploring interstellar space 45 years after launching, but it has encountered an issue that mystifies the spacecraft's team on Earth.

Voyager 1 continues to operate well, despite its advanced age and 14.5 billion-mile distance (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth. And it can receive and execute commands sent from NASA, as well as gather and send back science data.

But the readouts from the attitude articulation and control system, which control the spacecraft's orientation in space, don't match up with what Voyager is actually doing. The attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, ensures that the probe's high-gain antenna remains pointed at Earth so Voyager can send data back to NASA.

…snip…

So far, the Voyager team believes the AACS is still working, but the instrument's data readouts seem random or impossible. The system issue hasn't triggered anything to put the spacecraft into "safe mode" so far. That's when only essential operations occur so engineers can diagnose an issue that would put the spacecraft at risk.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/18/world/nasa-voyager-1-issue-scn/index.html

[Archae]

1. Don't worry, it'll return to Earth...

[Sancho]

2. you beat me to it...

[BumRushDaShow]

12. ...

[Earth-shine]

17. In ST:TMP, V'GER is Voyager 6. We stopped at 2.

Sorry.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Think "alternate timeline"

[electric_blue68]

23. 😄 👍

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Might have been thanks to an Atoz special

Or a discounted trip through the Guardian of Forever!

[electric_blue68]

31. 😄 indeed!

[electric_blue68]

26. Yup. Went there, too. 😄

[sdfernando]

3. its alien intelligence using our VERY primitive method of communication

they are trying to contact us. Need to look at the data and decode it.

[electric_blue68]

24. Bring on ?"Contact"? (the movie)

[LudwigPastorius]

34. Years ago, SNL predicted what the message would be.

https://m.facebook.com/ChuckBerry/videos/send-more-chuck-berry/3935038909938539/

[electric_blue68]

35. 😄 A good idea 👍

[ColinC]

4. Not even one light year away

But very, very far away

[BootinUp]

5. According to my quick calculation

It is .0025 light years away.

[ColinC]

6. Yeah. Which truly puts into perspective how insanely far a lot of these other

Places several light-years, hundreds, thousand or millions, truly are.

[TexasTowelie]

7. So if a family gets to travel to one of those planets in a nearby star system,

how many times will the kids ask, "Are we there yet?"

[ColinC]

8. ...

[Igel]

11. Or perhaps,

"How many generations of kids will ask, 'Are we there yet?' "

[Trueblue1968]

15. "How many generations of kids will ask, 'Are we there yet?' " .GREAT- Great- great great grandfath

er

[electric_blue68]

27. Bwah!

[plimsoll]

14. I think the canonical answer is:

We get there when we get there.

[LudwigPastorius]

16. ...or, "Don't make me turn this hollowed-out asteroid around!"

[electric_blue68]

25. Oh, neat! Stand alone art? Or based on a book, etc.

[LudwigPastorius]

32. I honestly don't know where it's from.

I just googled asteroid ship.

It does have a certain late 60s/early70s look to it.

[electric_blue68]

33. Ok. I figured I ask. 👍

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. We'll need to build thousands of space rest stops first......

for potty breaks for the ladies........

[Jimbo S]

29. EV charging stations?

[electric_blue68]

28. It's true. Mind bending!

[paleotn]

9. Oh, crap.

Just like the rest of us, age eventually takes its toll. I was a teenager when NASA launched the Voyagers, so I can relate. 14.5 billion miles. Roll that around in your head a few times. Wow.

[Akoto]

10. So the antenna might not be pointed at Earth? Alien data theft! nt

[Ray Bruns]

18. Gremlins

/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20110219190145

[Aussie105]

13. Good fuel economy though!

Go little Voy_1, go!

[3Hotdogs]

20. Fukkin' Romulans. I told yiz, they should'a been stopped

when they took over ZirTin. They used the excuse that most of the citizens of ZirTin were Romulans, spoke Romulan and want to be governed by Romulan.

[twodogsbarking]

21. What's for dinner?