The Voyager 1 probe, the most distant man-made object in the universe, recently began returning usable information to ground control after a period of sending incomprehensible data. The spacecraft had stopped transmitting readable information back to Earth in November 2023, although it continued to receive commands from controllers. In March, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory identified a malfunctioning chip as the cause and developed a coding solution to fix the issue within the computer system’s limited memory resources.
Currently, Voyager 1 is providing data on the condition of its engineering systems, with the next step being to resume sending scientific information. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space in 2012 and is now over 15 billion miles away from Earth. Messages sent to the spacecraft take approximately 22.5 hours to reach it. Its twin, Voyager 2, also exited the solar system in 2018.
The Voyager spacecraft each carry Golden Records, 12-inch gold-plated copper disks containing information about Earth intended for extraterrestrial beings. These records include a map of the solar system, a piece of uranium as a radioactive clock, and instructions on how to play the record. Selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan, the records also contain encoded images, music, and sounds meant to represent life on Earth.
The power sources of the Voyager spacecraft are expected to run out around 2025, after which they will continue traveling through the Milky Way potentially indefinitely, though they will no longer be able to communicate.