Data glitch aboard Voyager 1 fixed

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL Caltech

NASA announced that they have found a solution to a glitch causing the Voyager 1 probe to send faulty telemetry data back to Earth.

The glitch was caused by the 45-year-old craft's altitude articulation and control system (AACS) sending data to an onboard computer that had stopped functioning properly years ago, causing the data to become corrupted. The problem was solved by simply commanding Voyager 1 to send the data to the correct computer.

The reason Voyager 1 decided to send data to a non-functioning computer is currently unknown but is hypothesized by the Voyager 1 team to be an incorrect command from another onboard computer. Regardless, the issue appears to not be a threat to the long term health of the probe.

“We’ll do a full memory readout of the AACS and look at everything it’s been doing. That will help us try to diagnose the problem that caused the telemetry issue in the first place," project director Suzanne Dodd says.

Voyager 1 as well as its sister probe Voyager 2 can be tracked on their interstellar mission via the Voyager mission status page on NASA JPL's website.