Infinite spaces. NASA has misplaced evidence for spacecraft.

Voyager 1 is the furthest thing ever created by man. Now that causes problems, but NASA can no longer find the troubleshooting guides.

The problem is known. Suddenly the lawn mower won’t start anymore or the microwave is making strange noises. So you’re looking in the bottom drawer of the guide. If you can’t find it there, there’s usually a good chance you’ll find a digital copy on the Internet.

It becomes even more problematic when the device to be repaired has only been made twice, and is 45 years and 23 billion kilometers old, like the Yoyager 1 interstellar probe. Since May, it has been sending weird data to NASA that NASA hasn’t done properly, in part because it can no longer Find brochures.

Navigation system rotates

The Voyager 1 spacecraft and the twin Voyager 2 spacecraft launched in 1977. The primary target was gaseous planets, after which both were sent on a path to leave the Solar System. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012 and is currently the most distant human-made object.

Since May, the data sent back to Earth by the probe’s navigation system is meaningless. They obviously distort the probe’s motion and direction, because the fact that the data ever arrived proves that Voyager 1’s antenna is pointing in the right direction.

Radiation hits Voyager

Data from various instruments on board continues to arrive, but there are concerns that errors in the navigation system could sabotage the spacecraft and lose contact with Earth. NASA said the reason was so far a “mystery”. Of course, aging and strong radiation in interstellar space could have added to the components of the probe.

The explanation for the strange data could lie in the evidence of the Voyager investigations. But the highly complex probe systems were developed by thousands of engineers, there was no central documentation, but countless individual instructions and manuals.

brochures rot in garages

NASA’s archive system also left much to be desired, so many engineers took their documents home with them when they retired. They may still be lying in garages there, but many of the Voyager participants are already dead, which makes the brochures hard to find.

As NASA Project Manager Susan Dodd, “Insider” He saidit was necessary first to search for people who worked on the Voyager system at that time, in order to find the appropriate evidence.

Regardless of the current problem, the days of the Voyager sensors will likely be numbered anyway. Because the mini nuclear reactor on board provides less and less electricity. Therefore, some of the instruments on board will be turned off this year so that contact with the Earth can be maintained until at least 2030.