Sometimes, when a washing machine stops working, it is more profitable to buy a new one than to search through old manuals to repair a part for which, perhaps, there are no longer even spare parts. This is easy with appliances. However, when the damaged machine is the first object of human creation that has managed to move beyond the influence of the Sun, things change. It is worth the effort to fix. And that is precisely what is currently happening with the Voyager 1whose problems began last May.
Then it was learned that the telemetry data he was sending to Earth didn’t make sense, as they didn’t match his location. The scientists behind the project decided that the ship could continue working despite this inconvenience, since it does not affect the rest of the information that it sends us. However, the fact that it could continue to work does not mean that they have forgotten about the fault. They have been trying to fix it ever since and, as he explained to Business Insider the manager of this mission at NASA, Suzanne Dodd, it’s not being easy.
Basically, the main problem is the age of Voyager 1. Many of the records about its operation have been lost in these 45 years. It’s actually logical, no one thought it would last so long, so they didn’t bother to store them properly. Today everything is digitized, but back then it was about boxes of reports that scientists kept in their garages after retirement. Getting hold of all of them seems very complicated, so what they have should be enough. Without a doubt, it is quite a challenge that they have ahead of them.
In search of Voyager 1 failure
Both Voyager 1 and its sister ship, Voyager 2, launched into space in 1977. His goal was to closely study the outermost planets of the Solar System, from Jupiter to Neptune.
Initially, the task would last five years. However, after this first five years, it was seen that they could give much more of themselves. Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft capable of studying Uranus and Neptune, and Voyager 1 the first to position itself beyond the influence of the Sun, surpassing what is known as heliopause. It was not the time to retire them, so their mission continued to lengthen. In the case of Voyager 1, it is expected that it will be able to continue working until 2025. But this new failure has planted a complicated stop along the way.
Telemetry data, in Dodd’s words at Business Insiderare a sign of the system health. However, those that are being sent do not seem to fit the situation, so it is hinted that there is something wrong. What’s going on? Answering that question is not easy at all.
Digging through old manuals
Dodd’s team has had to resort to endless boxes of paper files made during the 1970s. The problem is that it is something like having only some of the pieces of a huge puzzle and having to fill in the gaps simply by intuition.
Many of the archives that were created in their day have been lost as the first scientists of the project have retired. Perhaps some could be recovered, but others may have been lost forever.
The best way to find out the source of the Voyager 1 problem would be to do a system reset, but they don’t know how to do that. For this reason, they can only shuffle some hypotheses. The first is simply that there may be aged parts. Let us remember that the mission was initially going to last 5 years and that it has already lasted 45. In addition, it may have suffered the impact of high energy charged particles in interstellar space. It is an unlikely collision, but not impossible. And, if that were the case, the consequences could be similar to those that are already being experienced.
But none of this is certain. It will be necessary to continue using the new tools and scientific knowledge, while continuing to delve into the documents of the past. Thus, perhaps, the problem will be found to, as planned, keep Voyager 1 at full capacity until 2025. And, who knows?, maybe even much later.