The Voyager 1 The interplanetary probe was launched in 1977 and has now reached interstellar space where it is the most distant human-made object. It has significantly exceeded its original mission and continues to return valuable scientific data, but there is an obvious error that leaves its controllers baffled. Onboard is an attitude control system that keeps the craft’s antennas pointed to Earth, and while they’re obviously still working (because we’re still in contact with the probe) and other good systems, It started returning incomprehensible data. Obviously, a habit was developed to report random data, or states where the antenna could not be.
That a 45-year-old computer still works at all is a testament to the skills of its designers, and 14.5 billion miles away, it’s impossible to fix, but we’ll be fascinated by his knowledge about the failure patterns of ancient electronics in space. It is assumed that they may simply live with the error if the system is still working, release a software fix, or find some way to use one of the redundant vehicle systems to avoid the problem. Meanwhile we can rest easily in our beds, because we are still two centuries away Its return as a sensitive giant space machine.
We have marked a file Voyager Program many times before here at Hackaday, not least When we take a closer look at one of his tools.
Thanks [Jon Woodcock] to obtain confidential information.
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