POT Fixed the Voyager 2 firmware to solve problems in the AACS control system, which, among other things, controls the orientation of the space probe. It also addresses the problem of fuel debris accumulating in the narrow tubes of its propellers. The main goal is to ensure that the ship (and its sister Voyager 1) will continue to explore space for at least 50 years after its launch.

Suzanne Dodd, JPL’s Voyager Project Manager responsible for the mission, explains: “This patch is like an insurance policy that will protect us in the future and help us keep these probes running for as long as possible. “They are the only spacecraft ever to operate in interstellar space, so the data they send back is exceptionally valuable to our understanding of our local universe.”.

Voyager 2 firmware

It’s not every day that you can update the firmware on computer systems that were developed in the 1970s and on a spacecraft beyond our solar system. Voyager 2 is 20 billion kilometers from Earthwhile Voyager 1 is 2,000 million kilometers away.

The fix was released on Friday to Voyager 2, the current testbed for these updates, and if anything goes wrong after months of checks, tests and verifications on Earth, at least Voyager 1 can continue to work. It is the farthest from Earth, so its science data is considered the most valuable, and communication with Voyager 2 is easier because it is “closer”.

And we put the quotes inside the quotes because communication with them once they are outside the solar system is very slow, 160 bits per second, so it takes min. 18 hours to send the data to the ship (and the same in return). Due to the age of the spacecraft and communication delays, there is some risk that the patch will overwrite the core code or have other adverse effects on the probe. If there are no immediate issues, the team will issue a command on Saturday, October 28 to see if the patch works as it should. This isn’t the first software update (and won’t be the last) and on several occasions communication with the probes has been lost.

The technical application of the patch focuses on control system and fuel wastage. Voyager’s thrusters are primarily used to keep the probes’ antennas pointed at Earth so that communications can be maintained. Spaceships can rotate in three directions: up and down, left and right, and around a central axis like a wheel. As they do so, the thrusters automatically ignite and reorient the ships so that their antennas point at Earth.

The problem comes from the resulting fuel residue that accumulates in the intake pipes. Each fuel burn adds a small amount of waste, but it accumulates gradually over decades. Accumulation becomes significant in some intake tubes, and to stop it, JPL has proposed modifications in the range of rotation that allow fewer nozzle starts.

Engineers can’t know for sure when the supply pipes are completely blocked, but they hope that won’t happen for at least five years and they can celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch. It’s not easy, as the Mission Control team at JPL suggests: “At this point in the mission, the engineering team is facing many challenges that we simply don’t have a manual for… But they are still looking for creative solutions.”.

The Voyager mission, quite the feat

The Voyager mission was originally supposed to last only four years and send both probes beyond Saturn and Jupiter. NASA expanded the mission so that Voyager 2 could visit Uranus and Neptune, and in 1990 NASA expanded it again to send the probes outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. Voyager 1 reached the limit in 2012, while Voyager 2 (traveling more slowly and in a different direction than its twin) reached it in 2018.

Both have traveled through the solar system (now further afield) over the past four decades, and together they have changed our understanding of our stellar neighborhood and revealed unprecedented information about interstellar space beyond spheres of influence of the Sun in a region where human beings do not have access.

In addition to the scientific value, the Voyagers also carry a very special item inside. in case an advanced civilization finds them one day. This is Voyager’s Golden Record, a gramophone record of the “Sounds of Earth” that depict the diversity of life and culture on our planet. He was selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan. “A Bottle Thrown into the Cosmic Ocean” as defined by the great popularizer of science.