Voyager 1, one of NASA’s longest-lived space missions, is suffering a communication malfunction, and the mission team is growing concerned that the far-flung spacecraft may not recover. Engineers are currently working to fix a computer error that is preventing the craft from transmitting data back to Earth, but software limitations and distance are making it difficult.
Since Nov. 14 of last year, the interstellar Voyager 1 probe has been unable to send back data collected by its scientific instruments, NASA officials said in a statement. The probe appears to be receiving and executing commands just fine, according to its California-based support team, and is continuing to hurtle through interstellar space more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth — far beyond the edge of the solar system. However, without access to the glitching systems, it’s hard for the engineers to fully assess the craft’s status.
“It would be the biggest miracle if we get it back,” Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said in an interview with Ars Technica.
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