Nasa gives major Voyager 1 communication update

Engineers at theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) have received decipherable data from Voyager 1 for the first time in five years, CNN reported.

They were able to achieve this feat after crafting a creative solution to fix a communication problem aboard humanity’s most distant spacecraft in the cosmos.

Voyager 1, a 46-year-old probeabout 15 billion miles away from the Earth, had been showcasing signs of aging and quirks in recent years.

In the latest communication issue in November 2023, the flight data system’s telemetry modulation unit began sending an indecipherable pattern of code.

Voyager 1’s flight data system collects information from the spacecraft's science instruments and engineering data.

It had been stuck in a loop since November sending unusable data despite theprobe's steady radio signal to Earth's mission control team.

The mission team received the first coherent data on Voyager 1's engineering systems on April 20 and, despite ongoing review, allevidence suggest the probe is healthy and operating properly.

"Today was a great day for Voyager 1," said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement on Saturday.

"We're back in communication with the spacecraft. And we look forward to getting science data back."

The team achieved breakthrough as the result of trial and error, unraveling a mystery and ultimately obtaining a single chip.