NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, which has been exploring our solar system for more than four decades now, was sending distorted data to mission controllers on Earth. Now, engineers have managed to determine the cause of the problem and have successfully fixed it. The team encountered this problem last year when Voyager 1’s Attitude Articulation and Control System (AACS) began returning invalid telemetry data, despite functioning normally. The AACS, among other functions, points the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna toward Earth enabling it to send data to the team.
As soon as the matter came to light, NASA engineers went ahead and tried to diagnose it. And, after a thorough investigation, the team found it that the AACS was sending telemetry data through a computer mounted on the spacecraft. This computer stopped working years ago and was corrupting the data provided by the AACS.
According to Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd, when the cause of the problem was identified, the team chose a low-risk solution to fix it. He ordered the AACS to start sending data through the correct computer.
While the issue may have been resolved, engineers still do not know why the AACS began delivering telemetry data through the wrong computer. However, he suspects that the AACS received a faulty command from another computer aboard the spacecraft. In this case, it would suggest that the root cause lies elsewhere. Voyager 1, The team now hopes to continue their search for the underlying issue, but they believe it does not pose a threat to the long-term health of the spacecraft.
“We’re happy to have telemetry back,” Dodd said. He said the team would do a complete memory readout of AACS and analyze its functioning. According to him, this will help determine the issue that led to the garbled telemetry data. “So we are cautiously optimistic, but we still have more to investigate,” Dodd said.
