NASA has successfully repaired the Voyager 1 probe, which had stopped sending usable data back to Earth in mid-November. The probe, the farthest human-made object in space, had continued to receive commands but was unable to transmit readable data. A faulty chip was discovered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the cause of the problem.
The probe, launched in 1977, became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space in 2012 and is currently over 15 billion miles away from Earth. Messages sent to the probe take about 22.5 hours to reach it. The Voyager 2 probe also left our solar system in 2018. Both Voyager probes carry gold-plated copper plates with information about Earth intended for extraterrestrials, selected by astronomer Carl Sagan and a NASA committee.
The contents of the discs include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium for dating, symbolic instructions, coded images, music, and sounds from Earth. It is expected that the probes will continue to roam the Milky Way in silence after their power sources run out, likely after 2025.
Nasa’s successful repair of the Voyager 1 probe demonstrates its ability to innovate and overcome challenges in space exploration and communication. The remarkable achievement of these probes showcases human creativity and curiosity about the universe beyond Earth.
