https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/...nasas-voyager-probes-across-the-universe.html

Today the Voyagers are 10 billion and 13 billion miles away, the farthest man-made objects from Earth. The 40th anniversary of their launch will be celebrated next month. We tend to think of space as vacant, but it is actually matter, created, as everything in the universe is, by the explosions of ancient stars. Within our planetary neighborhood, this ‘‘space’’ is made up of different particles than the space outside is, because of supersonic wind that blows out from the surface of our sun at a million miles per hour. The wind generates a bubble around our solar system called the heliosphere. Five years ago, Voyager 1 reached the boundary where the heliosphere gives way to interstellar space, a region as novel to us — and potentially relevant — as the Pacific was to Europeans 500 years ago. The data the probes are collecting are challenging fundamental physics and will provide clues to the biggest of questions: Why did our sun give birth to life only here? Where else, within our solar system or others, are we most likely to find evidence that we are not alone?

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/message/

Join NASA in celebrating the Voyager mission’s 40 years of exploring space. Inspired by the messages of goodwill carried on Voyager’s Golden Record, you’re invited to send via social media a short, uplifting #MessageToVoyager and all that lies beyond it. With input from the Voyager team and a public vote, one of these messages will be selected for NASA to beam into interstellar space on Sept. 5, 2017—the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch.

"Earth girls are not easy, don't believe this movie from Earth "

 

@nsaspook ,
Thanks for the post. Now if you'll only tell me how to get this extra moisture out of my eyes.

 

Just awe-inspiring...

 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2017-310

If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use.
...
"The Voyager flight team dug up decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language, to make sure we could safely test the thrusters," said Jones, chief engineer at JPL.

 

Simply amazing. I can still remember the excitement when coworkers would post the latest Voyager photos back in the late 1970's.

 

I remember back in the 80's reading an article in Scientific American titled something like "Voyager 2, triumph in space" ... absolutely beautiful

 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/engineers-investigating-nasas-voyager-1-telemetry-data

The engineering team with NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is trying to solve a mystery: The interstellar explorer is operating normally, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data. But readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard.

The AACS controls the 45-year-old spacecraft’s orientation. Among other tasks, it keeps Voyager 1’s high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home. All signs suggest the AACS is still working, but the telemetry data it’s returning is invalid. For instance, the data may appear to be randomly generated, or does not reflect any possible state the AACS could be in.

The issue hasn’t triggered any onboard fault protection systems, which are designed to put the spacecraft into “safe mode” – a state where only essential operations are carried out, giving engineers time to diagnose an issue. Voyager 1’s signal hasn’t weakened, either, which suggests the high-gain antenna remains in its prescribed orientation with Earth.

 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/engineers-investigating-nasas-voyager-1-telemetry-data

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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/record-breaking-voyager-spacecraft-begin-to-power-down/

Record-Breaking Voyager Spacecraft Begin to Power Down

Their remarkable odyssey is finally winding down, however. This year NASA plans to begin turning off some of the Voyagers' systems, eking out the spacecrafts' remaining energy stores to extend their unprecedented journeys to about 2030. For the Voyagers' scientists, many of whom have worked on the mission since its inception, it is a bittersweet time. They are now confronting the end of a project that far exceeded all their expectations.

“We're at 44 and a half years,” says Ralph McNutt, a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), who has devoted much of his career to the Voyagers. “So we've done 10 times the warranty on the darn things.”

 

Voyager must live on for many more years to meet the Kirk Unit!

 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2024...rogress-toward-understanding-voyager-1-issue/
NASA Engineers Make Progress Toward Understanding Voyager 1 Issue

Since November 2023, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, but the signal does not contain usable data. The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.
...
This new signal resulted from a command sent to Voyager 1 on March 1. Called a “poke” by the team, the command is meant to gently prompt the FDS to try different sequences in its software package in case the issue could be resolved by going around a corrupted section.

Because Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, it takes 22.5 hours for a radio signal to reach the spacecraft and another 22.5 hours for the probe’s response to reach antennas on the ground. So the team received the results of the command on March 3. On March 7, engineers began working to decode the data, and on March 10, they determined that it contains a memory readout.

The team is analyzing the readout. Using that information to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time.

 

https://www.space.com/space-explora...20-years-these-thrusters-were-considered-dead
NASA resurrects Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft's thrusters after 20 years: 'These thrusters were considered dead'

This recent development, in which NASA engineers revived Voyager 1's long-dormant backup thrusters, marks yet another remarkable feat of engineering and offers another lifeline for the aging spacecraft.

The backup thrusters are essential for executing precise "roll maneuvers" that adjust Voyager 1's orientation, ensuring its antenna stays pointed toward Earth for reliable communication. The spacecraft's original roll thrusters failed back in 2004 after two small internal heaters, crucial for their operation, lost power and stopped functioning. After thorough assessment, engineers determined these heaters couldn't be repaired remotely, prompting them to switch reliance fully to the backup thrusters to maintain alignment of the star tracker — a key instrument that helps Voyager 1 navigate and stabilize itself in space.