Voyager 1 Once Again Returning Science Data From All Four Instruments

That's far out!

It is just incredible to me that we have the ability and knowhow to send instructions to a 40 year old transistor computer to reprogram itself and get it working again with just radio signals.
- What they did was close to wizardry.
  With no way to fix the chip, the team instead split the code up so it could be stored elsewhere. Initially they focused on reacquiring the engineering data, sending an update to Voyager 1 on 18 April 2024.
  It takes 22.5 hours for a radio signal to travel the 24 billion kilometres (15 billion miles) out to Voyager 1, and the same back, meaning the spacecraft’s operations team didn’t receive a message back until 20 April.
  But when it arrived, they had usable data from Voyager 1 for the first time in five months.
  https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-missions/how-fixed-voyager-1
- ...from 15.2 BILLION miles away.
  And it can reply by basically shining a (very high-frequency) flashlight back at us.
- Incredible is the right word, how does this still work after more than 47 years? How do they even still have energy to send and receive signals? That's one heck of a durable power source. How do the computers and sensors still work? The reliability and durability of these probes is amazing. NASA truly had some reality wizards doing what seems like magic to accomplish this.
  Either that or, aliens have been helping out and repaired it from time to time.
- Same. That was incredible.
- 47 year old probe. Damn near 50
It's literally the most far out object there is

I'm constantly amazed at the longevity of this probe, so awesome!

it's too bad they don't make cellphones like this
- Kinda goes against capitalism. Planned obsolescence has been around for a long time and if somebody goes against it, they will be removed by the big players.
- Yeah. I'd totally buy an $800 million phone.
  Realistically you can buy something like a Fairphone that lets you replace most parts that wear out or get damaged, which definitely increases the overall longevity of your phone. Or that CAT phone that's supposed to be super durable if you're prone to breaking your phone. Or if smart phones aren't your deal you can maybe find the old reliable Nokia 3210, that phone does not break and the battery can be replaced.
  If you have phone longevity issues then stop buying phones that are not designed to be used for a long time.
- The satellite dish would press against your hip bone.
- they do work. my dad still has Nokia phone with black and white screen.
- I cant even get a decent wifi signal from a router 15ft away from me, but somehow we’re sending and receiving data from a satellite, that’s practically outside of our solar system. Isn’t that wild?

It's like the Jason Vorhees of spacecraft

That's just Jason X.
- I'd pay to see Voyager beat a teenager to death with another one in a sleeping bag. Sounds compelling.

V'ger has evolved

I was looking for this comment, else I would have been very disappointed
- Live Long and Prosper

Anyone ever sometimes think, that there's an alien species that kinda feels a little paternal towards us and keeps fixing out Tonka Toys because it makes us happy?

Screw thanking aliens, it's an incredible team of engineers that have the skills and dedication to do what seems impossible. This was 100% humanity at its best.
They rebuilt the most critical core code on a near antique spacecraft that has effectively left the solar system over an equally ancient radio link. They had 1 shot, and nailed it.
- Exactly. If there's anything that we can point to and say "humanity, fuck yeah" this is it. Giving thanks to aliens or to gods is an insult to the hard work of the HUMANS that accomplished this.
- Did they have eeproms in the 70s? It's just mind blowing. These nerds are next level.
- Yes ra ra NASA is totally legit and a shining example of the best achievements of humanity for sure. Nothing sketchy about it. It is amazing though to think how manned space flight is the only technology to not only lack progress in the last 60 years, but has actually regressed. I really wish these hero scientists could get back to working on manned space flight so we can ditch this whirling spaceball
This is disrespectful towards the achievements of the human race. My father kept attributing all of our recent technology to "the findings at roswell" and i have very strong feelings towards this position.
- So much agreeance. I can see how people may be awestruck by recent technology, but crediting it to extraterrestrial life both completely ignores the gradual progression of knowledge which enabled it and disregards the brilliant minds who spent their lives bringing it to fruition.

Provided we engineer them well, this is good news for truly deep space operations. Cosmic radiation and interplanetary gasses could (and probably do) wreak havoc on various materials, but apparently technology from the 70s is capable of handling it very long term.

Now if we could just get out of these squishy meat suits we'd be in business.

Solid state tech using minerals and metals for interstellar travel.
Squishy meatbag for living and reproducing on a goldilocked planetoid.
We should just turn into comets for the purpose of travelling 🐌 slow but effective

I try to diagnose the carburetor in my 50 year old Jeep sitting right in front of me, and I still can't get it running right.

These people are amazing, and the people that built that so it can still be fixed out in the Oort Cloud were even better.

What's the baud rate and have they needed to adjust it over time?

Not baud, but actual data rate returned:
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/science/
Science data are returned to earth in real time at 160 bps
- That "real time" on out of earth scale always boggles my mind. Technically it is as fast as it possibly could, knowing that radio waves travels at the speed of light. But damn, that light has to travel for a long time before arriving so "real time" data that arrives is technically "quite old" data.
- Imagine the ping & jitter.....oh...god......

Absolute Chad.

🫡

o7

Just curious: is the data of value for research or is it more like "look at us, we can repair from a distance"?

There are currently five science investigation teams participating in the VIM. The science teams for these investigations are currently collecting and evaluating data on the strength and orientation of the Sun's magnetic field; the composition, direction and energy spectra of the solar wind particles and interstellar cosmic rays; the strength of radio emissions that are thought to be originating at the heliopause, beyond which is interstellar space; and the distribution of hydrogen within the outer heliosphere.
There are 4 operating instruments on-board the Voyager 1 spacecraft. These instruments directly support the five science investigations teams. The Planetary Radio Astronomy Investigation (PRA) is no longer working on the Voyager 1 spacecraft and the Ultraviolet Spectrometer Subsystem (UVS) is no longer working on Voyager 1 or Voyager 2.
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/science/
Yes the data is valuable for research. You and I may not understand any of it, but its useful to someone. As for repairing from a distance, that thing has been traveling for 46 years and gone far. For reference, it passed Neptune back in 1989.
It would take many years for a new probe to reach those distances, so if it can be repaired, it shall.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2
Hypothetically, lets say it only takes 30 years for a new probe with updated tech to reach where Voyager 2 is now. If V2 died today, thats half of someone's career spent waiting for the new probe to arrive. Multiply that by everyone using the probe for research and you have a ton of wasted potential.
- I'm aware that sending something to do the repairs isn't an option, my question was whether it's worth it (and apparently it is) or if it's more an experiment about long distance repairs which by itself is very expressive already.
  I'm not sure why I'm downvoted. Maybe I worded my question badly or it's because it was a question I could have googled on my own. I don't know and neither do I care. I don't think you downvoted me, if it sounded that way. Just now saw it and wondered why
- Voyager 2 went with a different trajectory specifically to fly by the outer planets. Voyager 1 went with a more aggressive gravity assist from both Jupiter and Saturn to gain the speed necessary to leave the solar system. So it's not only that it takes decades to get that far, but also the launch window of when different planets are aligned to make the mission feasible.
Considering that's one of the two objects humanity ever have on direct contact with the medium outside the limits of our solar system, and the only tool we'll have there for at least four decades, I'd argue that yes, it is pretty valuable.
The repair from distance part is nothing to be shy about, too.
It's the only instrumentation we have at that distance that can measure things like solar irradiance.
Interesting question though, which sent me down a rabbit hole to see the capabilities of the instrumentation.
- I like to follow it through space

this detecation is impressive.

People will believe anything lol