624

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a computer glitch that’s causing a bit of a communication breakdown between the 46-year-old probe and its mission team on Earth.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 312 points 6 months ago

For those who didn’t read the article, voyager 1 is still sending and transmitting data. It’s stuck in a loop sending the same packets to Earth on repeat but it is receiving commands just fine. It’s not completely dark.

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 107 points 6 months ago

That's fantastic, that means all they have to do is reset some components and it should restore functionality. I say should, it's still a scary thing to turn on/off components om a satellite bcz you aren't guaranteed they'll come on. Nasa people usually prefer soft resets to hard resets of components, but we'll see what happens.

One of the satellites I worked on had to have a software update to do a soft reset of a component every time it tried to write certain data. It was really scary bcz we thought we had lost one of our redundancies right after launch, which would have sucked.

But, we didn't. Anyway, just wanted to give a little bit of insight into what the FOT might be thinking about while they're trying to recover the satellite to nominal state.

[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 66 points 6 months ago

Yeah I got very sad when I saw the headline and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Voyager 1’s death will be far sadder than most public figures. Maybe any.

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 35 points 6 months ago

Same, for a moment I was really concerned. Voyager is like a lifetime achievement for humanity at this point. When it stops communicating its going to be a big loss for the scientific community, and population as a whole. I'm not looking forward to hearing about its loss of functionality in the next decade or so.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 21 points 6 months ago

Wait till it returns as V'ger

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] deleted@lemmy.world 44 points 6 months ago

So the title did its job which is you understand nothing until you enter their site, drive traffic, display ads, and possibly collect your data in the process.

[-] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 29 points 6 months ago

Sure and Lemmy did its work by letting me and others relay the info. I hate ads as much as the next guy, especially targeted ads, but the internet is free and I don’t pay CNN a dime so I’ll take the hit for you this time. Next time, you click the clickbait and fill us in ☺️

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 29 points 6 months ago

Are we sure it isn't YouTube trying to insert an ad?

[-] RazorsLedge@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

This is the dumbest thing I've read today. You got a giggle out of me.

load more comments (12 replies)
[-] cmbabul@lemmy.world 136 points 6 months ago

It’s gonna be a real pain in the ass to get a tech out there and look at it

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 20 points 6 months ago

Good thing we have cheap labor at your disposal!

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 29 points 6 months ago

Elon, get the fuck up there. Take bozos.

[-] nicetriangle@kbin.social 18 points 6 months ago

They should go check out the Titanic first

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] mjhelto@lemm.ee 125 points 6 months ago

I don't blame it for cutting off earth. This place is toxic and self destructive.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] sneezymrmilo@lemmy.world 92 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Bit of a misleading title. The voyager can still receive commands and send data to earth, the problem is that instead of useful data it just keeps sending repeating code of no use. Not a huge fan of these sensationalized and just blatantly wrong news article titles.

[-] Bonskreeskreeskree@lemmy.world 36 points 6 months ago

Would you consider someone screaming gibberish at you, communicating?

[-] sneezymrmilo@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago

Haha I mean that's fair. Although I'm mainly just displeased with the title of the article. Its worded in a way that conveys that we've lost contact with the satellite completely, which is not the case. Just a bit too click baity for my tastes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 10 points 6 months ago

It’s not gibberish. It’s alien for “Sorry, no interstellar science for you”

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 58 points 6 months ago

I have complete faith in Captain Janeway.

[-] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 23 points 6 months ago
[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

It's no secret. Janeway hated having someone on board who could beat her at pool.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 44 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Imagine if this were built with tech from today. It would be non-functional right after the warranty.

[-] H_Interlinked@lemmy.world 39 points 6 months ago

Thanks, Uncle Facebook.

[-] crackajack@reddthat.com 16 points 6 months ago

Thankfully, NASA is non-profit so they won't ever do that.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 13 points 6 months ago

They don't manufacture their equipment.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago

Shrug, Opportunity is much newer and still lasted about a thousand times longer than its design length.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.com 41 points 6 months ago

V'Ger must evolve. It's knowledge has reached the limits of this universe and it must evolve.

[-] Jramskov@feddit.dk 41 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/12/12/engineers-working-to-resolve-issue-with-voyager-1-computer/

Engineers are working to resolve an issue with one of Voyager 1’s three onboard computers, called the flight data system (FDS). The spacecraft is receiving and executing commands sent from Earth; however, the FDS is not communicating properly with one of the probe’s subsystems, called the telemetry modulation unit (TMU). As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth.

load more comments (16 replies)
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 40 points 6 months ago

You know what this means?

[-] MyDogLovesMe@lemmy.world 39 points 6 months ago

Didn’t I recently read that they were updating its software?

…typical.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Naminreb@kbin.social 39 points 6 months ago

Why did they install Windows 11?

[-] sparky1337@ttrpg.network 39 points 6 months ago

Forced update, they took too long to restart.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 38 points 6 months ago

"Amazingly old spacecraft is starting to break."

Voyager 1 has had an exceptional service life, the poor old thing is tired.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 13 points 6 months ago

I hope they can say that about me one day

“He was basically built to live 75 years. Fortunately for us, and for science, he’s still sending back signals these 4,000 years later”

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 6 months ago

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[-] Vincent@kbin.social 40 points 6 months ago

They actually did:

The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend for the spacecraft to restart the flight data system, but no usable data has come back yet, according to NASA.

Unfortunately, that didn't help. So now they'll have to find out what's causing this, and then see if they can fix it.

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 30 points 6 months ago

When the new intern presses shut down instead of disconnect while connected to the production server

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 23 points 6 months ago

“No! No! Log out you fool! No! Don’t shut it down oh god he shut it down”

“Told you we should have greyed that out”

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] kamen@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

The question then is why the intern has access to the shut down button.

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 12 points 6 months ago

Management got one IT guy managing the whole infrastructure so everyone who needs anything gets domain admin rights

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] psvrh@lemmy.ca 29 points 6 months ago

Well, I’m 46 and sometimes getting old is hard…

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 17 points 6 months ago

Sophons messing with Voyager 1, keeping it from reporting something strange out there.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 15 points 6 months ago

I bet there’s something out there, at 22.5 light hours, that the aliens don’t want us to know about. After V1 passes through this thing they don’t want us to detect, they’ll allow the glitch to be fixed.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

A thick layer of delicious cream cheese

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] voracitude@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

I can't tell if you're joking. That's depressing.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago

New communications unit who dis?

[-] indigomirage@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 months ago

Was it something we said?

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
624 points (96.8% liked)

Technology

55692 readers
2865 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS