Trust in the Scientists and Engineers at NASA, Once Again

Some weekend good news for you:

The Voyager program is one of the best investments we have ever made in space exploration, both as Americans and as residents of planet Earth. After Voyager 1 began sending unreadable data back to Earth late last year, there was more than a little concern that the 46-year old interstellar craft may be ending its long service.

But the NASA team in charge of Voyager are a tenacious bunch, and that’s where the good news comes in. NASA announced on Thursday that they have isolated the issue, understanding that a chip has failed in the Flight Data System that packages Voyager 1’s data for transmission through 15 billion miles of space and back to us. Best of all, they are confident that the issue is fixable and are developing a workaround to bypass the failed chip (now that’s a remote patch!)

If fixed, the Voyager probe could have enough power to continue to send us information about interstellar space for years to come. While many of us will be looking skyward for Monday’s solar eclipse, this is a space story to follow that spans much more than a day.

I’m grateful for the investment that the US made in Voyager, and the ongoing work of engineers and scientists to keep both Voyager 1 and 2 running.