NASA's interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft isn't doing so well — here's what we know
Since late 2023, engineers have been trying to get the Voyager spacecraft back online.
![Voyager 1 rendering of the craft out in space, on the right side of the image.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/V3BkqtQLMP34yuGfzLUUxT-320-80.jpg)
On Dec. 12, 2023, NASA shared some worrisome news about Voyager 1, the first probe to walk away from our solar system's gravitational party and enter the isolation of interstellar space. Surrounded by darkness, Voyager 1 seems to be glitching.
It has been out there for more than 45 years, having supplied us with a bounty of treasure like the discovery of two new moons of Jupiter, another incredible ring of Saturn and the warm feeling that comes from knowing pieces of our lives will drift across the cosmos even after we're gone. (See: The Golden Record.) But now, Voyager 1's fate seems to be uncertain.
As of Feb. 6, NASA said the team remains working on bringing the spacecraft back to proper health. "Engineers are still working to resolve a data issue on Voyager 1," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "We can talk to the spacecraft, and it can hear us, but it's a slow process given the spacecraft's incredible distance from Earth."
Related: NASA's interstellar Voyager probes get software updates beamed from 12 billion miles away
So, on the bright side, even though Voyager 1 sits so utterly far away from us, ground control can actually communicate with it. In fact, last year, scientists beamed some software updates to the spacecraft as well as its counterpart, Voyager 2, from billions of miles away. Though on the dimmer side, due to that distance, a single back-and-forth communication between Voyager 1 and anyone on Earth takes a total of 45 hours. If NASA finds a solution, it won't be for some time.
The issue, engineers realized, has to do with one of Voyager 1's onboard computers known as the Flight Data System, or FDS. (The backup FDS stopped working in 1981.)
"The FDS is not communicating properly with one of the probe's subsystems, called the telemetry modulation unit (TMU)," NASA said in a blog post. "As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth." This is of course despite the fact that ground control can indeed send information to Voyager 1, which, at the time of writing this article, sits about 162 AU's from our planet. One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the sun, or 149,597,870.7 kilometers (92,955,807.3 miles).
Get the Space.com Newsletter
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
From the beginning
Voyager 1's FDS dilemma was first noticed last year, after the probe's TMU stopped sending back clear data and started procuring a bunch of rubbish.
As NASA explains in the blog post, one of the FDS' core jobs is to collect information about the spacecraft itself, in terms of its health and general status. "It then combines that information into a single data 'package' to be sent back to Earth by the TMU," the post says. "The data is in the form of ones and zeros, or binary code."
However, the TMU seemed to be shuffling back a non-intelligible version of binary code recently. Or, as the team puts it, it seems like the system is "stuck." Yes, the engineers tried turning it off and on again.
That didn't work.
Then, in early February, Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Ars Technica that the team might have pinpointed what's going on with the FDS at last. The theory is that the problem lies somewhere with the FDS' memory; there might be a computer bit that got corrupted. Unfortunately, though, because the FDS and TMU work together to relay information about the spacecraft's health, engineers are having a hard time figuring out where exactly the possible corruption may exist. The messenger is the one that needs a messenger.
They do know, however, that the spacecraft must be alive because they are receiving what's known as a "carrier tone." Carrier tone wavelengths don't carry information, but they are signals nonetheless, akin to a heartbeat. It's also worth considering that Voyager 1 has experienced problems before, such as in 2022 when the probe's "attitude articulation and control system" exhibited some blips that were ultimately patched up. Something similar happened to Voyager 2 during the summer of 2023, when Voyager 1's twin suffered some antenna complications before coming right back online again.
Still, Dodd says this situation has been the most serious since she began working on the historic Voyager mission.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
![Monisha Ravisetti](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/5p3Rix3sKiFo2yrevNbAYn.jpeg)
Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times. Prior to becoming a writer, she was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. She spends too much time playing online chess. Her favorite planet is Earth.
-
Classical Motion There must be more to this story. Let me see if I have this right.Reply
They can receive a carrier. But the modulator gives them junk. Or possibly the processor's memory.
And they can send new software. New instructions. So, why not simply use the packet data, to key the carrier on and off. OOK On and Off Keying.
Telegraphy. -
arturo.v.dominguez@gmail.
Voyager 1 and for that matter voyager 2 were originally designed and sent out to get us closeup information on Jupiter and Saturn.Admin said:NASA's Voyager 1 deep space probe started glitching last year, and scientists aren't sure they can fix it.
NASA's interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft isn't doing so well — here's what we know : Read more
They worked so well that instead of just forgetting about them NASA decided to use them to try and get as much whatever, other closeup, information they could get from the on everything else all the way and up to the edge of the heliosphere.
Much to their surprise they were still working remarkably well even as they continued to move away, from even that lofty goal. Basically, glitches were, and or are, an expected result of their journey.
The fact they are seeing glitches and not a complete loss of communications; is another win for the program. -
Classical Motion I wish something would kick one of them back to us. I would love to see an analysis of every cubic cm of it.Reply -
billslugg Modulating the carrier wave would do no good unless the carrier knew what information to send us. The unit that failed takes the raw data and then tells the carrier what to say. Without the modulation unit there is no data to send.Reply -
arturo.v.dominguez@gmail.
Now that would be something.Classical Motion said:I wish something would kick one of them back to us. I would love to see an analysis of every cubic cm of it.
I suppose we might not want a scenario ala Star Terk V-ger where an advanced sentient technology sends it back to us and instead of wanting to deliver and comply with its programing it wants to find and merge with its creator.
Not that a scenario (also Star Trek) ala The Final Frontier finds the Klingons using Pioneer-10 for target practice. -
Classical Motion I read that they were not sure if it was the modulator or the packet memory. The packet buffer. If they can send patch, it's easy to relocate that buffer into another section of memory. This can be done at several different memory locations to verify if it is a memory problem.Reply
If that works, then the modulator is ok. If the modulator fails with all those buffers, then it's the modulator.
Turn off modulator. Just enable the carrier for a certain duration for a 1 bit. And turn it off for that certain duration for a 0 bit. One simply rotates that buffer string thru the accumulator at the duration rate, and use status flags to key the transmitter. Very simple and very short code.
The packet is nothing more that a 128 BYTE or multiple size string of 1s and 0s.
OOK is a very common wireless modulation.
That's why I commented on more must be going on.
And I would like to see what 30 years naked in space does to man molded matter. -
arturo.v.dominguez@gmail.
Data storage chips/memory boards, on the Voyagers had a capacity equal to 4,096 words if that translates as a 128 byte use aka a quad word then we’re taking storage capacity in the 1 KB range. My assumption as I was unable to find definitive information on the subject.Classical Motion said:I read that they were not sure if it was the modulator or the packet memory. The packet buffer. If they can send patch, it's easy to relocate that buffer into another section of memory. This can be done at several different memory locations to verify if it is a memory problem.
If that works, then the modulator is ok. If the modulator fails with all those buffers, then it's the modulator.
Turn off modulator. Just enable the carrier for a certain duration for a 1 bit. And turn it off for that certain duration for a 0 bit. One simply rotates that buffer string thru the accumulator at the duration rate, and use status flags to key the transmitter. Very simple and very short code.
The packet is nothing more that a 128 BYTE or multiple size string of 1s and 0s.
OOK is a very common wireless modulation.
That's why I commented on more must be going on.
And I would like to see what 30 years naked in space does to man molded matter.
If that is the case, then the three onboard computers had a combined total capacity of 3 KB. So, if robotic/probe vehicle exploration is the key to exploration of the cosmos. Shouldn’t we be well on the way toward sending the next voyager type probes with, oh I don’t know, a minimum 3 – 2TB memory chips wherein each one would have, I don't know, four redundant controller/ instruction sets which could be activated if/when one fails. -
damienassurre I think they should make another space craft and have it pick up voyager 1 and bring it back the info it went through would very valuable to stellar travelReply -
arturo.v.dominguez@gmail.
Again, presupposing the information is/was correct on the structure/storage capacity of the memory chips, (I wouldn't mind revising my assumption if someone can provide me with a link) or can otherwise share the relative data with me.damienassurre said:I think they should make another space craft and have it pick up voyager 1 and bring it back the info it went through would very valuable to stellar travel
Having a newer more capable probe that could be instructed to intercept (if possible, even if by haps stance) one the voyager probes and bring it back shouldn't present a programable problem.
I mean if I am correct in my storage capacity conversion. Then the scenario I've put forward should give each of the three onboard computers: the Computer Command System (CCS), the Flight Data Subsystem (FDS), and the Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS). close to 500 times the storage capacity, in each of the quad redundant (cores?), of the original voyagers. -
billslugg The newer forms of memory can't be used easily in outer space as their feature size is too small and too easily corrupted by a cosmic ray. Very large, bulky features keep spacecraft memory far smaller than what earthbound computers can enjoy.Reply
As far as returning one of the Voyagers to Earth, it would take several thousand years using available technology. Better to wait for more advanced propulsion technologies.