News NASA's Voyager 1 satellite is currently lost in deep space due to a critical memory error

[yeyibi]

It is strange that they dnt put backup hardware on it , for such a long living hardware at least two or even more backup hardware should be included to take over operation once the original one stops working or gives errors.

The voyagers had 3 backup computers each one.

 

[Colif]

Voyager isn't by definition a satellite. Satellites orbit a celestial body, its a probe... its not orbiting anything intentionally.

 

[Eximo]

How is Voyager a satellite? It doesn’t orbit anything. It’s a probe.

Well, you could argue that it is effectively still in orbit about the galaxy. But yeah, in terms of the solar system frame, definitely a probe.

 

[Speeddymon]

This is weird I just out of the blue watched an hour long documentary about the two voyager satellites a few days back. For all these years I had forgotten about them as there launch was a life time ago. RIP little guy.

So it's not lost is it? Hahaha very good point!

We know where it is, but IT does not know where itself is or where it's going. 😝

 

[Co BIY]

We know where it is, but IT does not know where itself is or where it's going. 😝

So you're saying it's definitely not a missile.

 

[uwhusky1991]

This is weird I just out of the blue watched an hour long documentary about the two voyager satellites a few days back. For all these years I had forgotten about them as there launch was a life time ago. RIP little guy.

Not sure if I saw the same one, but it came up on my YouTube feed. The nuclear battery is fascinating. Reminded me of the plutonium heater used in The Martian.

 

[atomicWAR]

I too have always been fascinated with the Voyager program and space in general. I do hope NASA's engineers will find a fix but if they don't, Voyager I has still done wonders for modern science and physics. It is truly a legend and one of man's most amazing feats.

Long live V'ger!

 

[Eximo]

Not sure if I saw the same one, but it came up on my YouTube feed. The nuclear battery is fascinating. Reminded me of the plutonium heater used in The Martian.

Other way around. RTGs are used for a lot of space applications and is a logical thing to take along with you to Mars. (Quite a few didn't actually make it to orbit and burned up in the atmosphere or were exploded during take off)

The big rovers are nuclear powered, for example. The older smaller ones were pure solar (though they still outperformed all expectations)

 

[Blitz Hacker]

NASA should of checked the QVL before launch 🤣

 

[newtechldtech]

The voyagers had 3 backup computers each one.

and all failed ?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Voyager was stopped by the firmament.

 

[yeyibi]

and all failed ?

Of course. That's why they put 3 computers. It was guaranteed that they would fail.
Even today, some space computers fail the first day of work. Space is harsh.

Here on earth, we are protected from radiation by Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. That doesn't exist in space.

We still don't know how to make space machinery. Nasa published that on this century alone, 40% of space machines failed.

This study observed that between the years of 2000 to 2016, 41.3% of all small satellites
launched failed or partially failed. Of these small satellite missions, 24.2% were total mission failures, another 11% were partial mission failures, and 6.1% were launch vehicle failures.

 

[cryoburner]

And they're ignoring us on purpose!

There's also the possibility that there are few or no technologically advanced races out there. Life in the universe could be far rarer than many want to believe. Or humanity could be very early or very late compared to other space-faring civilizations, which may not develop until billions of years into the future, or which may have been more common billions of years in the past and have since died off. Or some developed to a point where they would be completely unrecognizable as life to a human.

Or the Earth could have simply been lucky so far at avoiding some total extinction event that regularly wipes out life-bearing planets. Many assume that life in the universe may be common due to its prevalence on Earth, but it could be that humanity simply won an exceptionally rare "survival lottery" that has allowed it to develop to this point.

Or maybe the universe as we know it is all a simulation, and we are the aliens taking part in an advanced VR experience where we pretend to be humans in a simulated world. : D