Voyager 1 returning science information once more

WASHINGTON — The 4 devices on NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft are returning science information for the primary time since a pc malfunction final November, as scientists hope to maintain the mission working for as much as one other decade.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory introduced June 13 that the 4 devices on the spacecraft, which measure plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles in interstellar area, have began returning information once more. Two of the devices began up instantly after instructions had been despatched to the spacecraft Might 19 whereas the opposite two required what JPL referred to as “some extra work” to renew operations.

The devices had been offline since November 2023, when a pc malfunction on board the spacecraft induced it to return garbled information. A “tiger group” of engineers traced the issue to a corrupted reminiscence chip in one of many spacecraft’s computer systems, and rewrote software program to keep away from utilizing that chip. That effort restored communications with the spacecraft in April.

“The tiger group was capable of reprogram and relocate that code, first for the engineering portion of the information modes coming from the spacecraft,” stated Linda Spilker, Voyager challenge scientist, at a June 13 assembly of the Outer Planets Evaluation Group the place she introduced the devices had been working once more. “We at the moment are getting science information again from all 4 Voyager 1 science devices.”

“That is the primary flight software program replace made to a spacecraft in interstellar area,” she added. “The final time we actually did a lot with the flight software program was previous to launch.” Voyager 1 launched in 1977.

With the spacecraft’s laptop now working once more, the important thing issue limiting the lifetime of Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, is declining energy ranges. Every spacecraft loses about 4 watts per 12 months, a mix of the decay of their plutonium-238 energy provides and degradation of the thermocouples that flip the warmth from that decay into energy.

Controllers have managed the declining energy by turning off nonessential techniques, together with heaters that had stored devices and different elements heat. “What’s taking place is that the spacecraft is changing into chilly, so we now have each an influence concern in addition to a thermal concern,” Spilker stated.

Sooner or later, she stated the mission should begin turning off devices themselves however was hopeful that the spacecraft can proceed to function maybe into the following decade.

“With just a little little bit of luck, it is likely to be doable to proceed the Voyager spacecraft taking information out to the 2030s,” she stated. If Voyager 1 makes it to 2035, it is going to be 200 astronomical models, or about 30 billion kilometers, from the solar. It’s at the moment greater than 24 billion kilometers from the solar.

“Proper now, our focus is to make it out to 2027,” she stated. “That would be the 50^th anniversary of the launch of each Voyager spacecraft.”

The announcement that Voyager 1’s devices had been returning information once more got here two days after JPL introduced the passing of Ed Stone, who served as Voyager’s challenge scientist from the mission’s inception in 1972 till 2022, when he retired and was changed by Spilker. Stone, a professor of physics at Caltech, additionally served as director of Caltech from 1991 to 2001.

“Ed Stone would usually say through the planetary flyby section that we had a uncommon alternative with the alignment of the planets and we seized it,” she stated of the “Grand Tour” trajectory that enabled the Voyager spacecraft to fly by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. “I might add that each Voyagers nonetheless have uncommon alternatives, and Ed will proceed to grab them.”

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