A communications glitch is preventing NASA's Voyager 1 probe — the farthest spacecraft from Earth in history — from sending home data, and mission scientists are growing concerned.
  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
    1131·
    9 months ago

    Voyager has been a success by any measure. It will be the furthest our species has ever reached to the stars and will be heralded as a pioneer of our best ambitions in the pursuit of knowledge.

    Voyager wasn’t a good probe, it was the best.

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
    301·
    9 months ago

    If it’s truly dead, it’s a sad day for humanity. The farthest reaches into space we’ve ever been, and possibly ever will be. It’ll just be a lonely probe wondering the cosmos, unable to phone home.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
          3·
          9 months ago

          Still very impressive regardless of who did it. Its original mission plan was for a little over 3 years but it worked for 46 years!

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
            6·
            9 months ago

            14-15x operational plan isn’t unheard of. The Mars Ingenuity helicopter outperformed by that much as well.

            Done right, engineering does very much resemble magic.

    • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 months ago

      Voyager 1 is not dead. It is only sleeping as it enters the final stage of its 1.5 billion year mission.

    • El Barto@lemmy.world
      715·
      9 months ago

      It’s just a piece of equipment, so it won’t “be lonely.”

      But I agree with everything else. It’s an INCREDIBLE masterpiece, just wandering space as an indicator that we exist(ed.) Amazing!

      • Rayston@kbin.social
        142·
        9 months ago

        Anthropomorphizing things is human nature and let’s us connect to things. Stop harshing our buzz.

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
          213·
          9 months ago

          Eh. You do you. I’d rather keep my space discussions separated from the tumblr crowd.

          Edit: downvoted by the tumblr crowd. I miss actual space-related discussions.

            • El Barto@lemmy.world
              23·
              9 months ago

              Eh, nah. I got plenty. But if you want to judge me for some comments I make on the cyberspace, be my guest.

              • tsuica@lemmy.world
                2·
                9 months ago

                I’m not judging you, my man. It just sounded like maybe you were having a bad day.

                Mucho love, amigo!

      • Limfjorden@feddit.dkdansk
        11·
        9 months ago

        It’s just a piece of equipment, so it’s not “wandering space” it doesn’t have legs.🤓

      • Cloudless ☼@feddit.ukEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        You just reminded me that I should read the book by Carl Sagan. Will probably find more interesting details in the book.

  • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    9 months ago

    I could be wrong, but didn’t this originally happen because a technician sent it some wrong data? I would really hate to be that guy. Not because of anyone blaming him, I seem to recall it had self corrective measures in case that specific event happened. I just wouldn’t be able to not blame myself for the loss of such a treasure.

    • Flumpkin@slrpnk.net
      91·
      9 months ago

      “The people that built the spacecraft are not alive anymore,” Dodd said. “We do have a reasonably good set of documentation, but a lot of it is in paper, so you do this archaeology dig to get documents.”

      Honestly this sounds a bit like negligence. It should be relatively easy to digitize everything and create a complete virtual simulation of the electronics including power levels and thermals so you can easily test the transmissions and programs before sending them.

      • AMDIsOurLord
        32·
        9 months ago

        That is a REALLY shit excuse for any good software engineer. If you can’t read well written paper documents then what the fuck are you doing with your life? Just imagine it’s a man page printed out

        • Flumpkin@slrpnk.net
          4·
          9 months ago

          My point is that if there is “only paper” then there is no digital representation, meaning there is no emulation. Right?

          That means you’re sending a program in machine code outside the solar system without having tested it before. And the people who build this thing are not among us anymore to answer any idiosyncrasies of the hardware / software. If you had a simulation so you can test and minimize the risk to this treasure.

          • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
            2·
            9 months ago

            But if you have all the schematics, there’s really no reason not to have a digital simulation. I mean, we’ve had emulated analog synthesizers in pro audio apps for at least a decade. Surely NASA could do this by now.

            • Flumpkin@slrpnk.net
              3·
              9 months ago

              Yeah. Except time and money. Or maybe the simulation would be too inaccurate and only give a false sense of safety? That’s the only reason I can think of why not to do this.

            • bstix@feddit.dkEnglish
              1·
              9 months ago

              That’s all good in theory. However, the RAM on Voyager 1 is an analogue tape recorder, so it will eventually just stop working.

              The computer(s) onboard is also the computer-system made by mankind that has been turned “on” for the longest time of any computer. It has never been turned off since the launch in 1977. There’s no other computer on Earth that has managed to run consistently for anywhere that long, and frankly I’m unsure if we even could. Theoretically it should be easy, but in practice… I doubt it. Most traffic signs need calibration annually or more frequent… This thing has been flying through space for 46 years and carrying out Fortran commands every day and now it just doesn’t. If there’s any physical problems… It’s impossible to revive.