Voyager 1 Is Sending Incomprehensible Gibberish To Earth And NASA Is Concerned
It's easy to forget that the pioneering space probe Voyager 1 that's currently over 15 billion miles away (in what we call "interstellar space") is nearing 47 years old. After all, along with its near twin Voyager 2, it has far outlived its service brief and has continued to provide scientists with new discoveries and vital information for future space programs.
Both crafts have had their fair share of issues due to old age and glitches of which the teams at NASA have been able to get ahead of. However, since November 2023 Voyager 1 has been communicating with Earth in alternating ones and zeroes (rather than proper binary), basically gibberish to the teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This means that Voyager 1 can't relay science data such as environmental information that could help the team diagnose the anomaly.
Compounding on the matter is that scientists have been stumped for a fix or a way to reset the affected system(s). According to Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, assures that the team has been scouring old manuals and trying to "get into the heads of the original developers and figure out why they designed something the way they did" to find a solution.
Appropriately, in order to fix nonsensical codes from an aging machine, the team has had to be careful in the methods they've attempted. However, Dodd says that as they run through a list of possible fixes, they may have to start sending commands to Voyager 1 that are riskier.
With Voyager 1 approaching 50 years old, the list of its aching problems grow. Many are cautiously holding their breath that this intrepid craft will soldier on, but its hardiness will be no match for its depleting plutonium power supply.
