The Voyager d The Interplanetary Probe was launched in 1977 and has now reached interstellar space where it is the most distant man-made object to travel. It has largely exceeded its original goal and continues to return valuable scientific data, but there is an apparent flaw that is confusing its regulators. The onboard is an attitude control system that points the craft’s antennas toward the earth, and it obviously still works (since we’re still communicating with the probe) and other systems are OK, it has begun to return intelligible data. Apparently it has developed a habit of reporting random data, or saying that the antenna may not be inside.
A 45-year-old computer is still in operation, a testament to the skill of its designers, and a repair 14.5 billion miles away is impossible, although we would be fascinated to learn about the failures of old electronics in space. It is assumed that if the system is still working, issuing a software fix, or finding some way to use one of Kraft’s unnecessary systems to avoid problems, they may simply survive the fault. In the meantime we can easily rest in our beds, as we are still a few centuries away from returning as a giant alien sensitive device.
We’ve featured Voyager Here’s the program a few times before at Hackade, at least when we took a closer look at one of its instruments.
Thanks [Jon Woodcock] For the tip