In order to extend the mission of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, NASA launched an update of their software while they are almost 25 billion km from Earth. A risky operation, but essential.
NASA may be working on very modern projects such as the design of electric field spacesuits to repel lunar dust, but it has not forgotten its ancient creations. And those that interest us here have 46 years all the same. On August 20 then September 5, 1977, the Voyager probes are launched. Originally, the mission must last 4 years only. The two devices intended for the study of the planets must “just” exceed Saturn And Jupiter. However, the space agency decides to continue so that Voyager 2 go see Uranus And Neptune.
In 1990, new extension. The objective is to exit the heliospherea sort of protective bubble made of particles and magnetic fields created by the sun. Voyager 1 achieved this in 2012 and its twin sister, slower and on a different trajectory, in 2018. Obviously, keeping the two devices active all this time requires remote maintenance operations. A few days ago, NASA launched… a software update. A patch in short. Except that there, computers are 19 and 24 billion km from Earth.
NASA updates Voyager probes located more than 20 billion miles away
Last year, the Voyager 1 probe started sending reports of strange states, although its operation was normal. After several months of investigation, engineers found where the problem was coming from: one of the systems wrote commands into the computer’s memory instead of executing them. This has been resolved, but we do not know the origin of the problem. To prevent it from happening again, a patch was deployed on Voyager 2 then on Voyager 1.
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Despite the impressive distance that separates us from the devices, the instructions for the update only put 18 hours to arrive safely. Since October 20, the date of implementation of the patch, NASA has been monitoring the two machines. If nothing abnormal is noted, the space agency will send a command on October 28 to ensure that the fix works as expected.
Source: NASA