Voyager 1, one of NASA’s oldest spacecraft, was launched into space a long time ago, in 1977. This vehicle, sent to investigate the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere, faces a significant problem.
Unable to establish data communication with Voyager 1!
After many years, Voyager 1 turned heads with a technical problem. According to a recent statement by NASA, there is difficulty in establishing a connection between the spacecraft’s data sending system and the telecommunication unit on Earth.
Spacecraft – Telecommunications unit
According to information published by NASA, Voyager 1 is preparing to send the research data it has collected to Earth. However, due to technical problems, the data gets stuck and this causes the information to be transmitted to the Earth in an incomplete and meaningless way.
Moreover, as Voyager 1 moved further into space, its distance from the Earth gradually increased, thus increasing the communication time. In this context, it takes 48 hours to send a command to the spacecraft and receive a response back. This makes solving the problem a little difficult.
NASA engineers are investigating the cause of the problem, but it is estimated that it will take some time to find the solution since they can communicate with the spacecraft every 2 days. One of the solution methods used in cases where such technical problems occur is to restart the spacecraft.
But rebooting doesn’t work on the current issue. Because Voyager 1’s equipment is quite old. In this regard, it seems that engineers need to find a different solution. In fact, this vehicle has faced similar problems before.
However, it continued to send data in previous technical failures. The current problem on Voyager 1 is estimated to be more serious than its predecessors.
So what do you think about this issue? You can share your opinions with us in the Comments section below.
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