Voyager 1 gets back to science operations

All four instruments are now functioning after months offline in interstellar space

Voyager 1 is back conducting scientific observations and transmitting data after spending more than six months offline. In November 2023, Voyager 1's data transmissions suddenly became nonsensical. The Voyager team finally discovered the fault was caused by a corrupted memory chip and were able to reprogramme the spacecraft to avoid the problem component. “This is the first flight software update made to a spacecraft in interstellar space,” says Linda Spilker, Voyager's project scientist. “We are now getting science data back from all four Voyager 1 science instruments.” Following the update on 19 May, two instruments immediately came back online. The other two required more work, but have now resumed their tasks of measuring plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles. No craft has gone further out into space than Voyager 1,…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2024

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