NASA lost contact with the interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft for nearly a week after a technical glitch shut off the probe's main transmitter. Using Voyager's weaker backup transmitter, engineers are assessing the problem from 15 billion miles away.
  • uservoid1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35·
    6 hours ago

    Every few months there is a similar such story about this ancient marvel of technology and the people remotely maintaining it against all odds.

    I can imagine a headline 100 years from now:

    “Engineers are modifying Voyager 1 decorative panel bolt into a functional interstellar communicator”

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      2 hours ago

      each line of code is transmitted over a bandwidth that only supports 1/2 a bit, and it takes 3.5 years to reach the Voyager