The diagnosis is in—bad memory knocked NASA’s aging Voyager 1 offline

Comments

• DemBoSain@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “Bad” memory that lasts 45 years in interplanetary space.

  #BringVoyagerHome

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  • muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    As soon as we invent FTL I’m sure we will

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    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Let’s focus on FTV first

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    • umbrella@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      might want to sit on this one

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  • ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Bring it home…?

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  • sundray@lemmus.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    This is going to be one tough RMA…

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  • frezik@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    All orbits are elliptical. Eventually, it will.

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    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It’s not in an orbit. Well, it technically is, but it moved far enough away that that orbit no longer intersects with the solar system’s SOI. That was the whole point of the voyager probes, to go out into deep space. That’s why we sent them out with our mix tapes

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    • Nighed@sffa.community ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      isn’t it on an escape trajectory?

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    • EatATaco@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Is it in orbit? And more importantly, is it in orbit around us?

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• psycho_driver@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  No worries. That portion of memory only contained the ‘oya’ portion of it’s name. It will continue on, known now as Vger.

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  • DannyMac@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Like most of you, my brain ingests random things and chews on them to produce weird nonsensical things, like when I go to the Midwestern US supercenter chain Meijer, I say if it somehow went into deep space, went through a black hole, and returned two hundred years later, it would be known as M’jer.

    I think of this every time I’m there.

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    • DigitalDruid@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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• XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  RIP. Rest in Interstellar sPace

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  • Endorkend@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    This is just a diagnosis of the problem.

    That thing is engineered so they can bypass or repurpose ever little bit.

    Which is probably what they'll do now, do a software update that will make the system evade the bad memory segment.

    Voyager has 3 computers and only 1 is affected.

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    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Did they use 3 different types of ram? If one is failing after 45 years I’d think the odds of the other similar memory possibly failing as well is possible

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  • roguetrick@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Ain't dead yet.

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• obinice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Hell yeah! My favourite space probes, those two.

  I know Voy1 will lose power soon anyway, but until then keep fighting right to the end!

  Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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• FunkPhenomenon@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  it’s really amazing that the hardware has lasted as long as it has. deep space is not a kind or gentle place.

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• Sprawlie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “Bad memory”. tpsh. That memory exceeded it’s mandate by 41 years. That memory is tired. it needed rest. It’s ready to collect it’s retirement pension.

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• lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  A bit of dementia.

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• aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “Daisy… Daisy…”

  The optical “eye” of the HAL 9000 computer from 2001 A Space Odyssey.

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  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    …ᵗᵉˡˡ ᵐᵉ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵃⁿˢʷᵉʳ ᵗʳᵘᵉ…

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

  ---

  Engineers have determined why NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has been transmitting gibberish for nearly five months, raising hopes of recovering humanity’s most distant spacecraft.

  The FDS duties include packaging Voyager 1’s science and engineering data for relay to Earth through the craft’s Telemetry Modulation Unit and radio transmitter.

  Suzanne Dodd, NASA’s project manager for the twin Voyager probes, told Ars in February that this was one of the most serious problems the mission has ever faced.

  Due to the Voyagers’ age, engineers had to reference paper documents, memos, and blueprints to help understand the spacecraft’s design details.

  After months of brainstorming and planning, teams at JPL uplinked a command in early March to prompt the spacecraft to send back a readout of the FDS memory.

  “The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn’t working,” NASA said in an update posted Thursday.

  ---

  The original article contains 668 words, the summary contains 153 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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  • mox@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Important points missed by the bot:

    FDS is the Flight Data Subsystem:

    The Flight Data Subsystem was an innovation in computing when it was developed five decades ago. It was the first computer on a spacecraft to use volatile memory. Most of NASA’s missions operate with redundancy, so each Voyager spacecraft launched with two FDS computers. But the backup FDS on Voyager 1 failed in 1982.

    They identified the problem:

    The command worked, and Voyager.1 responded with a signal different from the code the spacecraft had been transmitting since November. After several weeks of meticulous examination of the new code, engineers pinpointed the locations of the bad memory.

    They think they can work around the problem:

    “Although it may take weeks or months, engineers are optimistic they can find a way for the FDS to operate normally without the unusable memory hardware, which would enable Voyager 1 to begin returning science and engineering data again,” NASA said.

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    • femboy_bird@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Thank you kind human

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    • rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      FDS is the Flight Data Subsystem:

      Not to be confused with the Famicom Disk System, First Date Sex, or Feminine Deodorant Spray.

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• Nougat@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  You've been mostly dead all day.

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Even space probes are susceptible to dementia it seems.

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• FuryMaker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Most manufacture have a lifetime warranty with their memory sticks.

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  • lando55@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    “Bring it into the shop, we’ll replace the stick for free.”

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