Updated

Updated · Al Jazeera English · Nov 14

Voyager 1 Reaches 16 Billion Miles, Becoming First Human Object 1 Light-Day From Earth

Updated

Updated · Al Jazeera English · Nov 14

Voyager 1 Reaches 16 Billion Miles, Becoming First Human Object 1 Light-Day From Earth

Q: As Voyager 1 crosses the one-light-day threshold, what secret internal glitch caused its recent blackout in deep space?

NASA has not identified any “secret” internal glitch. The agency says the exact cause of Voyager 1’s late-October blackout is still under investigation. What engineers do know is that the 48-hour loss of signal appears to have been triggered by an internal spacecraft fault response. One set of thrusters went offline, and Voyager 1 automatically switched to backup thrusters, a built-in protection mode designed to put the probe in a safe, stable state when it detects a problem. During that period, it stopped responding to scheduled contacts from Earth. The evidence so far points to an onboard mechanical or power-related issue, not anything connected to crossing the one-light-day mark or passing through the heliosphere. Voyager 1 already crossed the heliopause back in 2012, so the outage was not caused by entering interstellar space. NASA has also noted that Voyager 1 recently underwent a major power-saving reconfiguration, nicknamed the “Big Bang,” as controllers shut down some devices and switched to lower-power alternatives. But available reports do not tie that change directly to the blackout. So the best answer is that there is no confirmed hidden glitch yet—only a likely internal fault that caused the spacecraft to shut down one thruster set and switch to backups automatically.

3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Nov 14

Wednesday marks Voyager 1’s latest milestone: 16 billion miles from Earth, making it the first human-made object to reach one light-day away.
Launched in 1977, the probe is now crossing interstellar space at about 36,000 mph after completing its primary planetary mission with a Saturn flyby in 1980.
NASA still receives daily readings on magnetic fields, pressure, dust and galactic cosmic rays, with a small engineering team sending commands about once a week.
The spacecraft remains operational despite a brief communications loss in October that engineers still have not explained.
Voyager 2 is expected to reach the same one-light-day mark in 2035, while Voyager 1 would need about 18,000 years to travel a full light-year.