NASA's Voyager 1 from the '70s is glitching. Engineers are consulting 45-year-old manuals to trouble

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

In May, NASA scientists said the Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending back inaccurate data from its altitude-control system. The mysterious glitch is still ongoing, according to the mission's engineering team. Now, in order to find a fix, engineers are digging through decades-old manuals.

Voyager 1, along with its twin Voyager 2, launched in 1977 with a design lifetime of five years to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their respective moons up close.

After nearly 45 years in space, both spacecraft are still functioning. In 2012, Voyager 1 became the very first human-made object to venture beyond the boundary of our sun's influence, known as the heliopause, and into interstellar space. It's now around 14.5 billion miles from Earth and sending data back from beyond the solar system.

"Nobody thought it would last as long as it has," Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Insider, adding, "And here we are."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasas-voyager-1-from-the-70s-is-glitching-engineers-are-consulting-45-year-old-manuals-to-troubleshoot/ar-AAZoknv

It's not calling itself V'ger I hope.

[brush]

1. Hope they get this intrepid space traveler's glitch figured out.

If not, it and it's mate, Voyager ll, have served us well.

Btw, there was a thread a few weeks ago about the two space crafts that mentioned that Voyager ll actually entered interstellar space slightly before Voyager l even though it was launched after Voyager l...something to do with orbit trajectories and sling effects from the outer planets' gravitational pulls.

[ornotna]

7. If memory serves me

Voyager II was launched first.


Edit to add.
And it was. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/timeline/#event-voyager-2-launches

[brush]

19. Thanks. There was something a bit unusual about the naming of the two.

[roamer65]

2. The RTG's probably don't have much longer to go.

The plutonium is over 45 years old now.

[Tetrachloride]

3. According to links, lifespan has a few years to go

and then transmission power is inadequate.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=voyager+expected+lifespan

[purr-rat beauty]

4. These machines have worked waaaaay beyond expected

Get some more modern probes up and out there, celebrate, and call it a day!

[Nevilledog]

5. V'ger

v

[Archae]

6. Me too!

&ab_channel=PhilF

[Hermit-The-Prog]

23. Call the Kirk!

[BumRushDaShow]

26. ...

[TxGuitar]

8. "Altitude control system"?

Is there altitude in space? Maybe a typo for attitude?

[sl8]

22. The article says "attitude" now.

Both the original Business Insider article and the MSN copy say "attitude control" now.

[madville]

9. Of course they'd be referencing old manuals lol

Working on old military equipment up until 2011 I was still looking at old manuals from the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s lol.

[Hekate]

10. 14.5 billion miles from home -- some all but forgotten part of my youth just stirred...

Go, V’ger, go! ❤️🌙

[captain queeg]

11. I worked with an old guy who was the last one that really knew an old control system

He was attempting to rewrite it in a modern language (it was FORTRAN). There’d been many patches over the years and not well documented.

[2naSalit]

16. Yikes!

FORTRAN!

I'll have nothing more to say on that.

[captain queeg]

21. Yeah I learned Fortran in college back in the mid 80s.

Back when we had to write our programs then take them down to enter on the main frame. At least we weren’t using cards. But I think it was already on the way out.

[Ilsa]

25. I learned Fortran in mid 70s. Had to type punch cards, too.

The punch cards were enough to send me heading towards any major that was not engineering.

[BumRushDaShow]

28. My college programming class

that I took as a recommended course for us chem majors, was supposed to be for FORTRAN. But at the time (late '70s), they swapped that out for PASCAL instead.

[2naSalit]

29. I didn't it...

Vanishing from my world in the least.

[Skittles]

12. "nobody thought it would last as long as it has"

same as with COBOL, mainframe, certain people, etc.

[Pobeka]

13. "certain people"

[Skittles]

14. Covid should have done that fucker in

Covid is such a crap shoot

[Pobeka]

15. Yep. I never felt so let down by a virus.

[Skittles]

18. just the karma aspect alone

complete missed opportunity

[2naSalit]

30. +1

[kentuck]

17. It's probably entered the replicate universe and is sending information to itself?

Since it is in an opposite universe. Just an idea.

[LeftInTX]

20. I thought it had died out years ago!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

24. I have a few old green-screen terminals in the barn ...

Also a paper tape reader and a "fixed disc" drive (500K and about 50 lbs). I'm willing to donate all of them to the cause.

[electric_blue68]

27. The "little engines" That Could 🥰🥰 and Far Beyond!

Rugged troopers.