NASA reported its Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending strange data back to Earth in May.
The glitch is ongoing and might be due to the spacecraft's age or location in interstellar space.
Engineers are looking through decades-old manuals to debug it.

In May, NASA scientists said the Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending back inaccurate data from its attitude-control system. The mysterious glitch is still ongoing, according to the mission's engineering team. Now, in order to find a fix, engineers are digging through decades-old manuals.

Voyager 1, along with its twin Voyager 2, launched in 1977 with a design lifetime of five years to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their respective moons up close.

After nearly 45 years in space, both spacecraft are still functioning. In 2012, Voyager 1 became the very first human-made object to venture beyond the boundary of our sun's influence, known as the heliopause, and into interstellar space. It's now around 14.5 billion miles from Earth and sending data back from beyond the solar system.

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Slide 1 of 22: Almost 45 years after their launch, Voyager 1 and 2 are still operating. But with power dwindling, the probes may soon reach the end of their scientific mission. Here are 18 pictures the probes took over the course of their forty-plus-year journey. The Voyager probes are pioneers of science, making it further into space than any other man-made object.NASA originally sent the twin probes on a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn in 1977; they exceeded all expectations, and are still going 45 years later.Amazing photos of the solar system are among the achievements they beamed back before NASA shut the cameras down.But now, they face a terminal problem: their power is running out, and NASA scientists are shutting down even more instruments on board to conserve energy.As they near the end of their mission, here are 18 images from Voyager that changed science:Read the original article on Business Insider

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1/22 SLIDES © NASA/JPL/Insider

NASA is slowly powering down the Voyager probes. Here are 18 groundbreaking photos from their 45-year mission.

Almost 45 years after their launch, Voyager 1 and 2 are still operating.
But with power dwindling, the probes may soon reach the end of their scientific mission.
Here are 18 pictures the probes took over the course of their forty-plus-year journey.

The Voyager probes are pioneers of science, making it further into space than any other man-made object.

NASA originally sent the twin probes on a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn in 1977; they exceeded all expectations, and are still going 45 years later.

Amazing photos of the solar system are among the achievements they beamed back before NASA shut the cameras down.

But now, they face a terminal problem: their power is running out, and NASA scientists are shutting down even more instruments on board to conserve energy.

As they near the end of their mission, here are 18 images from Voyager that changed science:

Read the original article on Business Insider

2/22 SLIDES © NASA

The Voyager probes were designed to visit Jupiter and Saturn.

The Voyager mission included two probes — Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 — which NASA launched in 1977 within a few months of each other.

The launches capitalized on a rare alignment of planets that allowed them to turbocharge their journeys into space.

NASA originally built the probes to last five years, but have exceeded that lifespan many times.

3/22 SLIDES © NASA/JPL

This is what Voyager 1 saw on its approach to Jupiter.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 reached Jupiter in 1979. They took about 50,000 pictures of the planet in total, which greatly exceeded the quality of the pictures scientists took from Earth, according to NASA.

The pictures taught scientists important facts about the planet's atmosphere, magnetic forces, and geology that would have been difficult to decipher otherwise.

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The probes discovered two new moons orbiting Jupiter: Thebe and Metis....

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...as well as a thin ring around Jupiter.

The probe captured this picture as it was looking back at the planet backlit by the Sun.

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Voyager 1's biggest discovery was volcanic activity at the surface of Io, one of Jupiter's moons.

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Next stop: Saturn

In 1980 and 1981, the probes reached Saturn. The flyby gave scientists unprecedented insight into the planet's ring structure, atmosphere, and moons.

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Voyager taught scientists about the detail of Saturn's rings.

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Voyager captured Enceladus, Saturn's moon, in unprecedented detail.

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This picture, taken as the probe flew away, provided a unique view of the planet.

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By 1986, Voyager 2 had made it to Uranus

Voyager 1 continued straight on and would not come across another planet on its journey out of the solar system.

But Voyager 2 kept on its exploration of our nearest planets, passing within 50,600 miles of Uranus in January 1986.

It discovered an extra two rings around Uranus, revealing the planet had at least 11, not 9.

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Its pictures of Uranus' largest moons also uncovered 11 previously unseen moons.

Here is a picture of a Miranda, Uranus's sixth-biggest moon.

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Voyager 2 was the first spacecraft to observe Neptune from a close distance.

In 1989, 12 years after its launch, Voyager 2 passed within 3,000 miles of Neptune.

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A picture shows the blue Neptune in full.

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A picture shows Triton's rough surface.

It captured Triton, Neptune's moon in unprecedented detail.

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Another shows Triton's southern hemisphere.

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It captured Neptune's rings.

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Here, Voyager saw the crescent shape of Neptune's south pole as it departed.

Voyager 2 would never take pictures again. Since it wouldn't come across another planet on its ongoing journey, NASA switched off its cameras after its flyby of Neptune to conserve energy for other instruments.

19/22 SLIDES © NASA/JPL

Voyager took 60 images of the solar system from about 4 billion miles away.

As its last photographic hurrah, Voyager 1 took 60 images of the solar system from 4 billion miles away in 1990.

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It gave us the Earth's most distant self-portrait, dubbed the "pale blue dot."

This is likely to remain the longest-range selfie in the history of humankind for some time: a portrait of the Earth from 4 billion miles away.

After this picture, NASA switched off Voyager 1's cameras to save energy. NASA could switch the probes' cameras back on, but it is not a priority for the mission.

21/22 SLIDES © NASA/JPL-Caltech

Beyond the solar system

Though the probes are no longer sending pictures, they haven't stopped sending crucial information about space.

In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first human-made instrument to cross into interstellar space by passing the heliopause, the boundary between our solar system and the rest of the universe.

Voyager 2 was the second, crossing the boundary in 2018. It then revealed there was an extra boundary surrounding our solar bubble.

The probes keep sending back measurements from interstellar space, like weird hums likely coming from vibrations made by neighboring stars.

22/22 SLIDES © NASA/Insider

Even after their instruments are switched off, the probes' mission continues.

Now NASA is planning to switch more off the probes' instruments with the hope of extending their life to the 2030s.

But even after all instruments become quiet, the probes will still drift off carrying the golden record, which could provide crucial information about humanity should intelligent extraterrestrial life exist and should it come across the probes.

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"Nobody thought it would last as long as it has," Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Insider, adding, "And here we are."

Unearthing old spacecraft documents

Voyager 1 was designed and built in the early 1970s, complicating efforts to troubleshoot the spacecraft's problems.

Though current Voyager engineers have some documentation — or command media, the technical term for the paperwork containing details on the spacecraft's design and procedures — from those early mission days, other important documents may have been lost or misplaced.

An engineer works on an instrument for one of NASA's Voyager spacecraft, on November 18, 1976. NASA/JPL-Caltech

During the first 12 years of the Voyager mission, thousands of engineers worked on the project, according to Dodd. "As they retired in the '70s and '80s, there wasn't a big push to have a project document library. People would take their boxes home to their garage," Dodd added. In modern missions, NASA keeps more robust records of documentation.

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There are some boxes with documents and schematic stored off-site from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Dodd and the rest of Voyager's handlers can request access to these records. Still, it can be a challenge. "Getting that information requires you to figure out who works in that area on the project," Dodd said.

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For Voyager 1's latest glitch, mission engineers have had to specifically look for boxes under the name of engineers who helped design the attitude-control system. "It's a time consuming process," Dodd said.

Source of the bug

The spacecraft's attitude-control system, which sends telemetry data back to NASA, indicates Voyager 1's orientation in space and keeps the spacecraft's high-gain antenna pointed at Earth, enabling it to beam data home.

"Telemetry data is basically a status on the health of the system," Dodd said. But the telemetry readouts the spacecraft's handlers are getting from the system are garbled, according to Dodd, which means they don't know if the attitude-control system is working properly.

So far, Voyager engineers haven't been able to find a root cause for the glitch, mainly because they haven't been able to reset the system, Dodd said. Dodd and her team believe it's due to an aging part. "Not everything works forever, even in space," she said.

Voyager's glitch may also be influenced by its location in interstellar space. According to Dodd, the spacecraft's data suggests that high-energy charged particles are out in interstellar space. "It's unlikely for one to hit the spacecraft, but if it were to occur, it could cause more damage to the electronics," Dodd said, adding, "We can't pinpoint that as the source of the anomaly, but it could be a factor."

Despite the spacecraft's orientation issues, it's still receiving and executing commands from Earth and its antenna is still pointed toward us. "We haven't seen any degradation in the signal strength," Dodd said.

Voyager 1's journey continues

As part of an ongoing power management effort that has ramped up in recent years, engineers have been powering down non-technical systems on board the Voyager probes, like its science instruments heaters, hoping to keep them going through 2030.

Voyager 1 looked back to Saturn on Nov 16, 1980 to give this unique perspective of its rings. NASA/JPL

From discovering unknown moons and rings to the first direct evidence of the heliopause, the Voyager mission has helped scientists understand the cosmos. "We want the mission to last as long as possible, because the science data is so very valuable,'' Dodd said.

"It's really remarkable that both spacecraft are still operating and operating well — little glitches, but operating extremely well and still sending back this valuable data," Dodd said, adding, "They're still talking to us."

Read the original article on Business Insider

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NASA is slowly powering down the Voyager probes. Here are 18 groundbreaking photos from their 45-year mission.

The Voyager probes were designed to visit Jupiter and Saturn.

This is what Voyager 1 saw on its approach to Jupiter.

The probes discovered two new moons orbiting Jupiter: Thebe and Metis....

...as well as a thin ring around Jupiter.

Voyager 1's biggest discovery was volcanic activity at the surface of Io, one of Jupiter's moons.

Next stop: Saturn

Voyager taught scientists about the detail of Saturn's rings.

Voyager captured Enceladus, Saturn's moon, in unprecedented detail.

This picture, taken as the probe flew away, provided a unique view of the planet.

By 1986, Voyager 2 had made it to Uranus

Its pictures of Uranus' largest moons also uncovered 11 previously unseen moons.

Voyager 2 was the first spacecraft to observe Neptune from a close distance.

A picture shows the blue Neptune in full.

A picture shows Triton's rough surface.

Another shows Triton's southern hemisphere.

It captured Neptune's rings.

Here, Voyager saw the crescent shape of Neptune's south pole as it departed.

Voyager took 60 images of the solar system from about 4 billion miles away.

It gave us the Earth's most distant self-portrait, dubbed the "pale blue dot."

Beyond the solar system

Even after their instruments are switched off, the probes' mission continues.

Unearthing old spacecraft documents

Source of the bug

Voyager 1's journey continues

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