The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes have received the update having traveled the greatest distance of all humanity, almost 20 billion kilometers from our planet!
Launched in 1977 by NASA, the probes continue to advance through space and send back data, which helps us learn more about places where humans might never even set foot. Suffice it to say that machines are precious. So when Voyager 1 started sending abnormal signals more than a year ago, we had to quickly find the source and apply a fix!
Voyager 1 was sending strange data
So what has been happening to Voyager 1 since May 2022? The question arose because the probe’s orientation system had been sending strange data since then, which scientists considered impossible. After months of work, they were finally able to find the source of the problem.
One of the three on-board computers had indeed started writing information directly into its memory instead of doing its normal task, namely executing it. A bug which prevented the normal transmission of Voyager 1, and which required the development of a patch.
A difficult software update
Except that obviously, the task was a bit more difficult to carry out than a simple iOS update. Because if it is already necessary to use a programming language that is of the time, in this case Fortran 5, it is also necessary to pay extreme attention to the effects of this patch. It would indeed not be a question of creating new dysfunctions by applying it!
Once the update was ready, its deployment required an interstellar send, the latter having traveled more than 20 hours to reach Voyager 1, located more than 20 billion kilometers from our planet. A shot from afar! Note that NASA seeks to keep these probes operating for as long as possible, with an end of life estimated around 2030 when, originally, the mission was supposed to last four years. One of the great successes of humanity?
Source : Space
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