JAKARTA - The spacecraft, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space for 45 years, and is still operating well. However, recently a problem suddenly appeared.
This caused confusion for the Voyager 1 team on Earth. Despite its advanced age and 14.5 billion miles from the planet, Voyager 1 continues to operate well.
It can receive and execute commands sent from NASA, as well as collect and retransmit scientific data. But readings from the stance articulation and control system (AACS), which controls the craft's orientation in space, don't match what Voyager actually does.
The AACS itself serves to ensure that Voyager 1's high gain antenna remains pointed toward Earth so it can send data back to NASA. Due to the location of Voyager 1, it takes 20 hours and 33 minutes to make a one-way trip.
So the call and response of a single message between NASA and Voyager 1 took two days. So far, the Voyager team believes AACS is still functioning, but the instrument's data readout appears to be experiencing a random system or failure.
That issue hasn't triggered any action by the team on Earth to put the spacecraft into safe mode so far. Only critical operations take place, so that engineers can diagnose problems that would endanger the spacecraft.
Voyager 1's signal is still as strong as ever, meaning the antenna is still pointing toward Earth. Now the team is trying to determine whether this erroneous data came directly from the instrument or another system that caused it.
"Mystery like this is equivalent to traveling at this stage of the Voyager mission. The spacecraft is nearly 45 years old, which is far beyond what mission planners anticipated. We are also in interstellar space, a highly radiation environment that has never been flown by spacecraft. space before," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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"So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there is a way to solve this problem with AACS, our team will find it."
If the team doesn't find the source of the problem, they may simply adapt to the current state of Voyager 1, or if they can find one, the problem can be solved by making software changes or relying on other hardware systems.
Meanwhile, Voyager 2, the twin spacecraft, continues to operate properly in interstellar space 12.1 billion miles from Earth. Both planes were launched in 1977 and have far exceeded their original goal of flying across the planet.
They are currently the only two spacecraft to collect data from interstellar space and provide insight into the heliosphere, or the bubble created by the Sun that extends beyond the planets in the Solar System.
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