NEW DELHI: After 5 months of silence, Nasa’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is again in contact with Earth, having overcome a perplexing communication glitch via an modern repair. The probe, which is at present 15 billion miles away from Earth, skilled points with its flight knowledge system’s telemetry modulation unit in November 2023, leading to indecipherable knowledge transmissions.The communication drawback was marked by a repeating sample of indecipherable code being despatched again to Earth, rendering the info from the spacecraft’s science devices and engineering methods unusable.Nevertheless, on April 20, Nasa engineers efficiently obtained coherent knowledge indicating that Voyager 1 is in good well being and functioning accurately.Linda Spilker, the Voyager venture scientist on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), expressed aid and anticipation for the long run, saying, “Right this moment was a terrific day for Voyager 1. We’re again in communication with the spacecraft. And we sit up for getting science knowledge again.”The decision got here after the mission group employed a way of trial and error, resulting in the invention {that a} single chip within the flight knowledge system’s reminiscence was not functioning accurately. The chip’s failure, probably as a result of put on and tear or harm from a high-energy particle, led to three% of the system’s reminiscence being corrupted.Unable to restore the chip immediately, engineers developed a workaround by relocating the affected code to different components of the system’s reminiscence. This intricate course of required adjusting the code to make sure that the complete system may proceed to operate cohesively.By April 18, the required instructions have been despatched to Voyager 1 to reassign the code. Two days later, the group confirmed the success of their efforts after they obtained a response from the spacecraft. This success marks one other milestone for Voyager 1, which, together with its twin Voyager 2, has been exploring area since 1977, far exceeding its unique five-year mission plan.As engineers proceed to work on relocating different affected components of the system’s software program, they continue to be optimistic concerning the continued operation of the spacecraft. Suzanne Dodd, Voyager Venture Supervisor, mirrored on the continued journey, “We by no means know for certain what’s going to occur with the Voyagers, but it surely consistently amazes me after they simply hold going. We’ve had many anomalies, and they’re getting tougher. However we’ve been lucky to date to get better from them. And the mission retains going. And youthful engineers are coming onto the Voyager group and contributing their information to maintain the mission going.”