NASA plans to keep the historic Voyager program exploring for at least a few more years. But these space probes, launched in 1977, have traveled billions of miles through space and are no longer the fresh-faced wonders they once were. They require maintenance, and NASA recently fixed a pair of software issues in both Voyager 1 and 2. Now, Voyager 1 has another problem, and NASA is working to solve it to keep the mission going.
On December 12, NASA announced that Voyager 1’s flight data system is having problems. The spacecraft’s telemetry modulation unit cannot transmit data back to Earth, even though it can still receive and execute commands. NASA has tried several troubleshooting methods but without success.
The issue may take “several weeks” to fix because the Voyager program is continuing far longer than anyone expected. Signals take about 22.5 hours to reach Voyager 1, and then it takes another two days to see if any changes have worked. That’s not bad for a spacecraft that was only supposed to last four years.
Linda Spilker, a project scientist for the Voyager program, knows that Voyager won’t last forever. “Voyager has transformed the way we look at our solar system, and now it’s exploring interstellar space, a place no spacecraft has ever been before,” she said. “We realize that Voyager means a lot to people, and we are doing our best to keep them going for as long as possible.”
