For months, there was a rising concern that we might must say farewell to the Voyager 1 spacecraft after it started to ship again garbled information. Now, in a sudden twist, Voyager 1 despatched again a read-out of the Flight Information Subsystem (FDS) reminiscence after a “poke” command, which each offers some hope that the spacecraft is in a greater situation than feared whereas additionally permits engineers to dig by means of the returned reminiscence read-out for clues. Though this information was not despatched within the format that the FDS is meant to make use of when it’s working appropriately, it’s nonetheless readable.
It was beforehand suspected that the problem lay with the telemetry modulation unit (TMU), however has since been nailed all the way down to the FDS itself. This comes after NASA engineers have been updating the firmware on each spacecraft to increase their lifespan, nevertheless it’s too early to think about this as a attainable cause. Now, because of the “poke” instruction – which instructions the pc to strive totally different sequences in its firmware in case a part of it has been corrupted – engineers can examine it to earlier downloads to hopefully work out the trigger behind the FDS issues and a attainable answer.
Impressed by this information of the decoded reminiscence obtain, Nadia Drake – daughter of Frank Drake – wrote about the way it impacts not solely the engineers who’ve labored on the Voyager mission for the previous many years but additionally her personal ideas concerning the two Voyager spacecraft. Not solely do they kind an enduring reminder of her father and so a lot of his colleagues, however the silence that will observe if we are able to not talk with these spacecraft could be profound. Nonetheless, this new hope is healthier than the sooner information about this plucky little spaceship.
Due to [Mark Stevens] for the tip.