Months after a serious computer problem appeared to spell the end of Voyager 1, which has provided data on outer planets and the edge of our solar system for nearly half a century, NASA said Thursday it has restored the spacecraft to working order.
“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in a statement about Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object in the universe.
Since the problem surfaced in November, engineers have been working to diagnose and fix the issue, a tedious and time-consuming task made more complicated by the fact that it takes nearly two days to send and receive information from Voyager 1, the first human-made object to enter interstellar space and now more than 15 billion miles from Earth.
The space community has been watching with bated breath since last year, as prospects for repairing the aging probe remain dire.
Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said in February that the problem, which hindered Voyager 1's ability to transmit consistent engineering and science data to Earth, was the “most serious issue” the probe had faced since she began leading the mission in 2010.
Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets. NASA took advantage of the unusual configuration of the solar system, allowing the probes to use each planet's gravity to navigate to the next, visiting four outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
After a successful planetary exploration mission, Voyager 1 continued its journey towards the edge of our solar system, capturing a legendary photo of Earth in 1990: a tiny speck floating in the infinite darkness that became known as the “pale dot.”
In 2012, the probe became the first to reach interstellar space, and since then, along with its twin probe which followed six years later, have been collecting data about the heliosphere, the space around the sun that is directly affected by the sun.
Perhaps just as profoundly significant as the pale blue dots, each spacecraft carries a golden gramophone filled with audio recordings and images of humanity and life on Earth, waiting to one day be discovered by another civilization.
Voyager 1's prospects for recovery improved significantly in April, when NASA reported it had transmitted “usable” data about the spacecraft's engineering systems and health, followed by news late last month that teams had restored functionality to two of Voyager 1's science instruments, allowing it to transmit science data and continue the mission.
NASA announced Thursday that it had brought the remaining instruments back online, returning Voyager 1 to normal operations.
Still, Voyager 1's new lifespan may not last long. NASA previously estimated that the nuclear generators on Voyager 1 and 2 would likely fail around 2025. But Voyager 1 has already demonstrated it can overcome that possibility. Dodd hopes that both Voyager spacecraft will be ready to go for the mission's 50th anniversary in 2027.