The Voyager 1 spacecraft has lost contact with NASA and they do not know whether it is possible to reconnect or not

The venerable spaceship Voyager 1 from NASA It was launched 46 years ago, just a few weeks after its twin Voyager 2 cannot communicate efficiently with Earth, After recording a problem with its communications antenna since the end of last year.

There are many challenges facing a potTo solve this problem, after nearly 50 years of transit, Voyager 1 is about 24 billion kilometers from Earthwhile moving faster than 60 thousand kilometers per hour. So any command sent from Earth to the probe is taken up by it 23 hours.

A damaged computer collects data from scientific and engineering instruments about the health and condition of the device Space ship. Then the subsystem it connects to It collects that information and sends it back to our planet.

The fact is that in recent weeks, these messages have emerged, which should be clear to experts Repetitive patterns that don't make any sense.

The ship has started to steer A repeating pattern of ones and zeros on the floor, as if she were “stuck”. The spacecraft seamlessly carries out instructions it receives from NASA mission controllers, but the science and engineering data it transmits is no longer useful to the engineers who operate it from NASA's control center.

Despite the obstacles NASA engineers They are working to correct this anomaly, although it is estimated to take several more weeks.

After discovering that the source of the problem was the flight data system, The NASA team decided to restart the probe To try to restore it to the state it was in before. However, Voyager 1 continued to transmit unusable data, and in recent days, researchers discovered that this space instrument You lose your ability to communicate.

NASA is still working to resolve a problem reported in December with one of three computers aboard the aging Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft, called the Flight Data System (FDS). “We can talk to the spacecraft and it can hear us, but it's a slow process given the incredible distance From spacecraft to Earth,” the agency explains in one of its accounts on the X website. It takes 22.5 hours for commands from mission controllers on Earth to reach Voyager 1, which is exploring the outer regions of our solar system more than 24 billion kilometers from Earth.

this means The engineering team has to wait 45 hours for a response from Voyager 1 and determine whether the command achieved the desired result. The spacecraft, which was launched in 1977, receives commands sent from Earth and executes them. However, the FDS does not communicate properly with one of the probe's subsystems, called the Telecommunications Unit (TMU).

“As a result, no scientific or engineering data was transmitted to Earth,” NASA reported in December. Previously, the TMU started sending a repetitive pattern of ones and zeros as if it was “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the problem was FDS. The team first tried to restart FDS and return it to the state it was in before the problem began, but the spacecraft did not return any usable data.

Among other things, The FDS is designed to collect data from scientific instruments as well as engineering data about the health and condition of the spacecraft. It then combines that information into a single “packet” of data that the TMU sends back to Earth. Data is in the form of ones and zeros, or binary code. Variable sets of two numbers are the basis of all computer languages.

Finding solutions to challenges facing probes often requires consulting decades-old original documents written by engineers who did not anticipate the problems that arise today.

As a result, it takes time for the team to understand how the new command will affect spacecraft operations to avoid unintended consequences, the space agency explains. This automated probe, which weighs 722 kilograms, is currently undertaking the task of defining and studying the boundaries of the solar system, including the Kuiper Belt and beyond, as well as directly exploring interstellar space, until its end.

Voyager mission project manager Susan Dodd noted in the New York Times that, “Scientifically, it's a big loss.”. However, his team still has hope because the probe has survived several technical failures, although not as serious as the ones it is experiencing now.

The spacecraft was launched in 1977, the same year as its “twin,” Voyager 2. Initially, both probes were not going to leave the solar system and were tasked with exploring the environment of distant planets.Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

But after the good results obtained, NASA decided to give it a second life for exploration outside the boundaries of our system. Regardless of whether this failure heralds the end of Voyager 1, that is He achieved much more than he originally intended. Likewise, other probes will continue to discover what lies beyond our borders.

The spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, are the two longest spacecraft in history. They have been outside our solar system for more than a decade, traveling to the edges of the universe to find some form of life.

“Travelers continued to make amazing discoveriesInspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers. “We don't know how long the mission will last, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide more scientific surprises as it moves away from Earth,” said Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL.

“Silent Ambassadors” Recently They will silence when they enter what scientists call the pristine interstellar medium. As the Sun's influence fades and there is less turbulence, probes will likely pick up a mixture of matter from other stars.

However, detecting the impact of the next star is beyond the spacecraft. Voyager 1 will approach a star in the Camelopardalis constellation called AC+79 3888. In 40,000 years, While Voyager 2 has an almost identical flight time to a star called Ross 248 in the constellation Andromeda.. Now that the two spacecraft have ended their useful lives with their power supplies running out, the last time scientists will hear from them will likely be in the 2030s, at best.