No other human-made object has ever traveled as far from the Sun as the two Voyager probes. Most recently, Voyager 1 was only sending junk data, but now the probe has caught itself again.
Photo: imago images/spacephotos co
The deep space probe Voyager 1 is sending useful data again. This was announced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Voyager 1 last provided readable data on November 14, 2023. NASA has identified a defective chip as the cause of the error. The code stored on it could no longer be executed. Since then, NASA has split the code and placed it on other chips on the probe. Apparently with success. The newly received information relates to the status of the components and systems on board. NASA now hopes that Voyager 1 will provide scientific data again.
Methuselah among space probes
When the two Voyager probes launched in 1977, Pluto was still a planet, rocket developer Wernher von Braun had just died and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was a six-year-old child. 47 years later, space travel is different, but Voyager 1 and 2 are still sending their data to Earth – intermittently. Meanwhile, the more distant of the two probes, Voyager 1, has put nearly 24.3 billion km between itself and Earth – 163 times the Earth-Sun distance – making it further from us than any other man-made object . In the meantime, the mission seemed to be coming to an end. The NASA control center reported for the first time in the summer of 2022 that Voyager 1 was still functioning, but was now sending chaotic data. Not a shocker from NASA’s perspective: “Such a mystery is no surprise at this point in the mission,” says chief scientist Suzanne Dodd.
NASA’s Voyager probes are surprisingly resilient
The Voyager probes are proven to be resilient and frugal. Both are equipped with long-lasting thermoelectric generators that run on plutonium-238. The generators’ original output was 470 W; every year there are a few watts less. The lifespan was originally supposed to be four years, but was repeatedly extended. The NASA teams have now switched off more and more instruments to save valuable energy. Of the original 20 instruments, only nine were still active in July 2022. NASA wants to continue this cost-cutting tactic.
Most of the original Voyager teams have already retired
Voyager technology dates back to the 1960s and 1970s – and is hopelessly outdated. For today’s NASA teams, dealing with the probes is tricky because the technical documentation is decades old. Sometimes the teams get stuck in dealing with the probes. Then only one thing helps: call a colleague who has long since retired. In addition, it takes roughly 22 hours for the probes to receive a radio signal from Earth. The people in the control center only know after almost two days whether the probes responded as planned.
Jupiter and Saturn were the targets of the Voyager program
The reason for the Voyager program was a special planetary constellation: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are in an elongated arc every 175 years – and the time had come at the end of the 1970s. This made it possible to use the planets for so-called slingshot maneuvers. The Voyager probes were able to accelerate in the gravitational fields of the planets and thus save fuel. The primary mission objective was to study the Jupiter and Saturn systems. Both probes initially stayed in the vicinity of the two gas giants.
Voyager 1 discovered Saturn’s moons Pandora and Prometheus
Among other things, they researched Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system. It throws ionized sulfur and oxygen into the sky from craters hundreds of kilometers in diameter; Jupiter’s magnetosphere is full of Io plasma. Voyager 1 then turned north to photograph Saturn’s rings. The discovery of the two moons Pandora and Prometheus near the F ring confirmed the theory that Saturn’s rings are stabilized by the presence of moons.
Voyager 2 set out on a trajectory from the Saturn system to Uranus. The probes examined a total of four planets and over 50 moons before they also left the orbit of the outermost planet behind them: Neptune. That was 1989.
Beyond the boundaries of the solar system
The probes then flew through the planetless emptiness of the outer solar system – and have now left that behind. In 2012, Voyager 1 left the so-called heliosphere, the spherical area around the sun where the solar wind keeps the interstellar medium away. Voyager 2 followed six years later. The probes are currently racing through the Milky Way at speeds of 61,000 km/h (Voyager 1) and 55,000 km/h. However, there are academic differences of opinion about whether they have left our solar system. Further out, in the Oort cloud, there are still supposed to be objects that primarily move in orbits around the sun. According to NASA, it will take another 28,000 years for Voyager 1 to reach the end of this cloud.
Golden data carrier with Bach, Beethoven and Chuck Berry for the aliens
The area of the Milky Way in which the gravity of our sun dominates ends behind the Oort cloud. The Voyager probes will eventually reach other star systems if they do not explode or collide with anything. In this case, they have the famous golden data carriers on board that contain evidence of humanity: music by Bach, Beethoven and Chuck Berry, for example, as well as greetings in 55 different languages. Whether the disks will ever be read is the final big question surrounding the Voyager program. In all cases, the storage period of the imprinted information is 500 million years. And when that time is up, even Voyager 1 won’t have power anymore.
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