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submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

NASA's interstellar Voyager probes get software updates beamed from 12 billion miles away::A few updates to the two Voyager spacecraft should extend the space explorers' lives so they can continue adventuring in the cosmos.

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[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 12 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


"This far into the mission, the engineering team is being faced with a lot of challenges for which we just don’t have a playbook."

One update, a software fix, ought to tend to the corrupted data that Voyager 1 began transmitting last year, and another set aims to prevent gunk from building up in both spacecraft's thrusters.

This bugfix won't answer why the AACS had diverted the telemetry data in the first place, however, a mystery that may hint at a larger problem with Voyager 1.

Still, engineers are confident the patch should stem the issue — at least, after the update’s transmission completes its more-than-20-hour-long journey to Voyager 1.

Over decades of maneuvers, the residue has built up; engineers worry that the tubes might soon clog completely.

So, over September and October, engineers began allowing the spacecraft to rotate more— aiming to reduce how often the probes need to fire.


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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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