Voyager 1 Please Call Home

arthwollipot said:
Turns out landing an unmanned probe (upright) on the moon is pretty damned hard. Also, something that "we" absolutely nailed fifty years ago.
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To land a probe successfully the first time on the moon costs heaps of money. This is what the recent attempt failed to do. Even in the 1960s, many attempts to soft land on the moon failed. Having a person in the landing craft does help, though this option is expensive for obvious reasons.
 
rjh01 said:
To land a probe successfully the first time on the moon costs heaps of money. This is what the recent attempt failed to do. Even in the 1960s, many attempts to soft land on the moon failed. Having a person in the landing craft does help, though this option is expensive for obvious reasons.
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Getting Stanley Kubrick and the whole film crew up there with them, for a start.
 
There is something to say about sufficiently old technology, that there can be ways to work around issues. I wonder what would happen if it were a modern cpu board where a cosmic ray took out a bit or two? Could that be isolated and let the computer still work?

But the more important question is, did they have to bring Clint Eastwood out of retirement to interpret the coding in the assembly language?
 
pgwenthold said:
There is something to say about sufficiently old technology, that there can be ways to work around issues. I wonder what would happen if it were a modern cpu board where a cosmic ray took out a bit or two? Could that be isolated and let the computer still work?
But the more important question is, did they have to bring Clint Eastwood out of retirement to interpret the coding in the assembly language?
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I was wondering that as well, the tolerances for modern hardware are so incredible slight simply because of the size of the "components", would we be better off using older generations of chips and components where there is some "protection" based on nothing more than being bigger and can have more atoms knocked out before failing.
 
Counterpoint: Use newer generations of chips and components, to realize the *huge* performance and miniaturization gains. But stick to simple designs, multiple redundant modules, and additional shielding. You'd probably end up with a system that was several orders of magnitude more capable than what we had 40 years ago, while still being smaller and lighter even with the additional reliability engineering needed for the latest generation of finicky electronics.
 
I can remember as a student in the '80s being told that electronics for space flight was not, as you might have imagined, at the leading edge of the then 8 to 16 bit microprocessor advances. On the contrary it used older tried-and-trusted designs, in materials chosen to survive cosmic ray hits by having larger features and built on substrates (I think I recall synthetic ruby being mentioned) which safely dispersed voltage spikes caused by such radiation.
 
This mission is so cool. I can’t believe what the team has done to fix this problem from 15 billion miles away. The brain power in that room is truly staggering! Kudos to them all.
 
I am a software developer yet I still think it is amazing.

Years ago I read a book about the space probes. It talked about how a probe would take years for the probe to reach its first destination so they would use that time to finish and improve the software. I thought that was pretty cool.
 
How it was Done

Silent no more: NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft

Engineers traced the culprit to a single malfunctioning chip within the Flight Data Subsystem (FDS).
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. . .
On April 18th, 2024, after months of meticulous planning, the first crucial step was taken. The section of code responsible for engineering data transmission was successfully relocated within the FDS. The 45-hour round trip for a signal to reach Voyager 1 and back added to the suspense. Finally, on April 20th, jubilation erupted at JPL as the long-awaited response arrived. For the first time in five months, engineers were able to receive clear engineering data, confirming a healthy and operational Voyager 1.
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. . .
The road ahead for the aging spacecraft

The successful relocation of the engineering data code paves the way for further recovery efforts. Over the coming weeks, the remaining sections of the FDS software, including those vital for transmitting science data, will undergo the same relocation and adjustment process. This will allow Voyager 1 to resume its role as a sentinel at the fringes of our solar system, providing invaluable data on the interstellar medium.
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Not there yet!

One small step at a time.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
I can remember as a student in the '80s being told that electronics for space flight was not, as you might have imagined, at the leading edge of the then 8 to 16 bit microprocessor advances. On the contrary it used older tried-and-trusted designs, in materials chosen to survive cosmic ray hits by having larger features and built on substrates (I think I recall synthetic ruby being mentioned) which safely dispersed voltage spikes caused by such radiation.
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It's also because progress was (and is to a lesser degree) so fast in regard to the likes of processors and the design and build time so long that even if you started with the leading-edge hardware by the time the probe would be ready to be sent on its way your hardware will be quite a few generations behind.
 
Latest!

NASA Voyager 1 Back To Science After Glitch In Interstellar Space

Two of Voyager 1’s instruments are working again and sending back usable science data. “The mission’s science instrument teams are now determining steps to recalibrate the remaining two instruments, which will likely occur in the coming weeks,” said NASA in a statement on May 22.
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if only my dishwasher would last as long. ;)
 
Unbelievable!

Voyager 1 returning science data from all four instruments

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is conducting normal science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023.

The team partially resolved the issue in April when they prompted the spacecraft to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft. On May 19, the mission team executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data.
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:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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