The Innovative Approach That Helped NASA Engineers Fix Voyager 1 From 15 Billion Miles Away

Fixing a Problems Billions of Miles Away in Space

In the second half of 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, and both remained operational, traveling across space for 45 long years. Even with diminishing power, the probes continued to send valuable information to scientists that proved crucial in understanding the cosmos, until Voyager 1 encountered a glitch and stopped sending information on November 14, 2023. As NASA was faced with difficulties with the vehicle 15 billion miles away in space, here's what its engineers did to address issues to establish contact with Voyager 1 once again.

1. Identifying the Issue

On the day that Voyager 1 stopped sending information, the systems seemed to be working normally as the spacecraft received commands and responded to them, but it had stopped sending back scientific data. It took almost four months for the ground team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to identify the root cause of the issue. Finally, in March 2024, they discovered that there had been an issue with one of the three computers on board since the Flight Data Subsystem’s (FDS) chip had stopped working.

2. Deciphering FDS

Knewz.com noted that Voyager 1 had three computers onboard. One was the Computer Command System (CCS), the other was the Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS), and the third was the Flight Data System (FDS). Among them, CCS communicated with Earth and executed received commands, while AACS ensured that the spacecraft’s orientation was properly aligned with the antenna pointed toward Earth. Meanwhile, all the information collected by Voyager 1 was stored and repackaged by the Flight Data System to be sent to Earth, as reported by Syfy . The research team discovered that one of the chips responsible for preserving data in the FDS had become corrupted and was not sending meaningful data.

3. Fixing the Issue Billions of Miles Away

The chip that malfunctioned had a large block of code that was crucial for Voyager 1 to transmit scientific data back to NASA, as reported by USA Today . The team decided to break the code into smaller parts and store it on other chips in the FDS. Since a single communication with the spacecraft took 22.5 hours, the team started with the code responsible for sending information back to Earth. They were finally sure that the approach had paid off when NASA received the scientific data from Voyager 1 several hours later. Over time, the team moved other portions of the code to different locations in the FDS.

4. Voyager 1's Back to Work

After the issue was resolved from Earth, Voyager 1 resumed its normal operations and continued to send valuable data for studying the universe. The spacecraft, which helped us study Saturn and Jupiter in the 1980s, was later pivoted toward interstellar space. Although power levels are low due to prolonged operation, scientists are powering only the systems essential for the probe’s mission. The goal of the mission was to keep the spacecraft operational until the 2030s, as reported by CNN experts.