Voyager sends strange data from outside our solar system. whats going on?

In the official announcement NASA We can read: “Interstellar Explorer normally operates, receives and executes commands from the earth, as well as collects and retrieves scientific data. But readings from the study articulation and control system (AACS)) They do not reflect what is really going on on the ship. “

This means that the study is confusing depending on its status In space.

AACS It is necessary to send data to NASA about the current location of Voyager. It points the antenna directly at the earth.

Susan Todd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: “Both spacecraft Be about 45 years oldThis is more than task planners expect.

Scientists say the twin spacecraft Voyager 2 is running normally.

In 1977, studies were launched to study the extraterrestrials on our planet The Solar System. In turn, in 2012 they left our contract Galaxy interval. Studies continue to send important data to understand how space works. They are currently located approximately 14.5 billion miles from Earth, forming the farthest man-made object from Earth.

According to NASA engineers, “AACS still works, but the telemetry it gives is incorrect. For example, data Created approx And do not reflect any potential state of AACS. “

“Until we have a better understanding of the nature of the problem, the team will not be able to predict how long this will affect how long the spacecraft can collect and transmit scientific data,” NASA said.

The problem did not return to the board Failure protection systemsThey are designed to keep the ship in “degraded mode”, in which case only essential functions are performed. This gives engineers time to diagnose the problem.

“Voyager 1 signal is not affected either. The antenna is in the recommended orientation relative to the ground.” – We read in the report.

Currently, the grass is tough An inquiry into what the nature of the problem is. It takes about two days for the spacecraft to send messages to and from Earth. So it may take a long time to test all the possibilities.