NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, the most distant man-made object in the Universe, has started sending usable information back to ground control after months of sending garbled data, announced the US space agency on Monday. Previously, the spacecraft had stopped sending readable data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, but controllers knew it was still receiving their commands. In March, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team discovered that a malfunctioning chip was causing the issue and devised a coding fix that worked within the spacecraft’s limited memory constraints.
Now, Voyager 1 is providing data on the health and status of its engineering systems, with plans to start sending scientific data back soon. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft from Earth to enter the interstellar medium in 2012 and is currently over 15 billion miles away from Earth. Messages from Earth take about 22.5 hours to reach the spacecraft, showcasing the immense distance it has traveled.
Voyager 2, Voyager 1’s twin, also left the solar system in 2018. Both Voyager spacecraft carry “Golden Records,” containing a variety of information about Earth intended for potential extraterrestrial encounters. These records include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium for dating purposes, and instructions on how to play the record. The selections for the Golden Records were chosen by a committee headed by Carl Sagan and include encoded images of life on Earth, music, and sounds that can be played with a stylus.
Despite their incredible journey, the Voyager spacecraft’s power banks are expected to run out sometime after 2025. Once their power is depleted, they will continue to drift through the Milky Way in silence, potentially for eternity.