A bit too much anthropomorphism, but Voyager 1 is in trouble. Again. This time it seems a lot like a stroke, or perhaps Alzheimer's disease. While the probe seems to take commands, it's sending back incoherent ramblings.
Voyager has three computer systems on board, together called the Flight Data System (FDS), and engineers working on the problem have concluded it's what they call the telecommunications unit (TMU). As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth.
Among other things, the FDS is designed to collect data from the science instruments as well as engineering data about the health and status of the spacecraft. It then combines that information into a single data “package” to be sent back to Earth by the TMU. The data is in the form of ones and zeros, or binary code. Varying combinations of the two numbers are the basis of all computer language.
Recently, the TMU began transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the issue is the FDS. This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data.
I think about this as resembling someone with dementia saying the same things all the time, but I'm at a loss to say which is the less coherent one. Maybe the TMU is less coherent because the human's words are bigger than "a repeating pattern" of ones and zeroes, but an answer to the wrong question or just saying random words isn't exactly coherent either.
The Voyager team is saying it will probably take weeks to develop a plan to fix it. It's a harsh reality that Voyager 1 is over 22 light hours away, so any patch takes pretty much a day to get to the probe and another day for any output to get back to Earth. It's another harsh reality that Voyagers 1 and 2 are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history; or to put it another way, they're the two oldest spacecraft anyone can work on. That means consulting original, nearly 50 year old documents written by engineers who may not have anticipated everything that can go wrong, not found every possible failure mode.
That second fact - that both probes are now 46 and invariably approaching end of life - is the harshest reality of all. There may not be a fix for this, and if there is, another worse problem might be right behind this one.
Artist’s illustration of one of the Voyager spacecraft. Credit: Caltech/NASA-JPL
I wonder if it's sending out "S-E-N-D-M-O-A-R-P-L-U-T-O-N-I-U-M"?
ReplyDelete'I'm sorry, Dave. I cannot do that.'
DeleteBTW: Vger is not the oldest operational, if the term 'spacecraft' includes satellites in LEO.
From memory; round about 2011 I was on some website which listed the space junk. I made note of a U.S. commsat launched in 1961 or '63. I mentioned that to a friend who contracted with DoD and JPL. He said they had reactivated that sat.
That was about 2011. I do not know the status today.
N-O-D-I-S-A-S-S-E-M-B-L-E
DeleteI briefly thought of embedding a link to Grandpa Simpson rambling incoherently, but these are far better!
DeleteI wonder who back when we launched Voyager thought about a multi-generational ground crew for it?
ReplyDeleteEntropy works.
ReplyDeleteIf they can't resuscitate it, great.
If not, bid adieu, and kiss it off.
And then launch another set of probes, faster, more robust, longer life spans and more power output for signal, and build on what the first two got us.
That's how it worked with sailing ships, and how it should work with space probes.
Deal with it, and move on. Our tech is 46 years better. Think what we could do this time around.
Finally, a mission worthy of NASA, and within their limited skill set.
Senescence happens to all of us, even old space probes. Sad to see it slowly lapse into incoherence, but what did you expect? Vger is old and tired.
ReplyDeleteGreat job!! Now go gently into that quiet night. You were great!!
They should do all possible to keep these working. It would take a half century to get something else out there to continue acquiring data. But eventually these probes will die. Nothing lasts forever. And the environment out there is extremely harsh.
ReplyDeleteHopefully an alien probe won’t crash into and send it hurtling back to earth with sinister motives
ReplyDelete