After 5 months without communication, Voyager 1 was able to transmit a correct message to Earth, according to NASA. The Voyager 1 probe, which is currently located 24,000 million kilometers away from Earth, recently regained the ability to transmit data back to scientists on our planet. The spacecraft, launched in 1977, had lost communication towards the end of last year, with messages coming through as indecipherable and meaningless due to a failure in its computers.
On November 14, 2023, after 11 years of exploration of interstellar space, Voyager 1’s binary code communication started making sense again for the mission specialists at NASA. The spacecraft had reached a distance of 24 billion kilometers from Earth and was 1,000 astronomical units away from the Sun in the interstellar medium.
NASA worked for 5 months to resolve a problem with one of the three computers aboard Voyager 1, the flight data system (FDS), which was not properly communicating with the telecommunications subsystem (TMU). The FDS collects data from scientific instruments and the spacecraft’s health and condition, combining it into a data packet that the TMU sends back to Earth. This data is transmitted in binary code, and the resolution of this communication issue has allowed scientists to once again receive valuable information from the distant spacecraft.
For more information on this significant milestone in interstellar exploration, readers can find additional details on this story in INFOBAE.