This was the first 'portrait' of the solar system and was captured by Voyager 1. The Earth is a tiny dot in the image. Photo: Nasa
This was the first 'portrait' of the solar system and was captured by Voyager 1. The Earth is a tiny dot in the image. Photo: Nasa
This was the first 'portrait' of the solar system and was captured by Voyager 1. The Earth is a tiny dot in the image. Photo: Nasa
This was the first 'portrait' of the solar system and was captured by Voyager 1. The Earth is a tiny dot in the image. Photo: Nasa

Nasa struggles to fix Voyager 1 spacecraft glitch


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US space agency Nasa this week is trying to re-establish communications with the Voyager 1 spacecraft after it stopped sending understandable messages.

A post by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which runs the Voyager programme of two robotic interstellar probes, said that there was an issue where Voyager 1 is "receiving and executing commands sent from Earth" but a flight-data system computer on the spacecraft is not communicating properly in return.

It usually collects and transmits data back to Earth through the flight-data system, but it has not been able to successfully send "useable" data to engineers at Nasa.

"As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth," the Laboratory's Calla Cofield wrote.

Voyager 1 is 24 billion kilometres away from Earth, the farthest spacecraft from home.

The two Voyager craft, since being launched in 1977, are known to be the longest-operating spacecraft.

A social media account for the Voyager spacecraft said: "Voyager 1 is having a bit of trouble with its Flight Data System, but our team is on it."

Nasa says it could take engineers weeks to "develop a new plan to remedy the issue", Ms Cofield wrote in the post.

It poses a unique challenge to rectify the problem because the computers on the spacecraft are decades old, and it takes nearly two days to see if a fix is successful.

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Updated: December 14, 2023, 10:40 PM`