Voyager 1 starts making sense again after months of babble
- Reference: 1710422109
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/14/voyager_1_not_dead/
- Source link:
[1]On March 1 , the Voyager team sent a command, dubbed a "poke," to get the probe's Flight Data System (FDS) to try some other sequences in its software in the hope of circumventing whatever had become corrupted.
Readers of a certain vintage will doubtless have memories of poke sheets for various 1980s games. Not that this hack ever used a poke to get [2]infinite lives in Jet Set Willy , of course.
[3]
While Voyager 1's lifespan is not infinite, it has endured far longer than anticipated and might be about to dodge yet another bullet. On March 3, the mission team saw something different in the stream of data returned from the spacecraft, which had been unreadable since December.
[4]
[5]
An engineer with the Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to decode it, and by March 10, the team determined that it contained a complete memory dump from the FDS.
The FDS memory read-out contains its code, variables, and science and engineering data for downlink.
[6]
Prior to NASA's announcement, Dr Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager Interstellar Mission, said in a [7]Pasadena Star-News report that the data being transmitted from the probe was "not exactly what we would expect, but they do look like something that can show us that the FDS is at least partially working."
[8]Work to resolve binary babble from Voyager 1 is ongoing
[9]Space exploitation vs space exploration: Humanity has much to learn from the Voyager probes
[10]44-year-old Voyager 2 data sheds light on solar system's magnetic personalities
[11]NASA engineers scratch heads as Voyager 1 starts spouting cosmic gibberish
Dodd was referring to the ones and zeroes streaming from the spacecraft. Previously, the probe's telemetry modulation unit (TMU) had begun in mid-December [12]transmitting a repeating binary pattern as though it was somehow stuck. Engineers reckoned the issue was somewhere within the FDS.
The next step is to study the memory read-out and compare it to one transmitted before the problem arose. A solution to the issue could then be devised.
One of the original Voyager scientists, Garry Hunt, told The Register that engineers at JPL were determined to get communications with the stricken probe working again: "This requires both skills and patience with the long time between communication instructions and response."
The time lag is a problem. A command from Earth takes 22.5 hours to reach the probe, and the same period is needed again for a response. This means a 45-hour wait to see what a given command might have done.
[13]
The availability of skills is also an issue. Many of the engineers who worked on the project - Voyager 1 launched in 1977 - are no longer around, and the team that remains is faced with trawling through reams of decades-old documents to deal with unanticipated issues arising today. ®
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[1] https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2024/03/13/nasa-engineers-make-progress-toward-understanding-voyager-1-issue/
[2] https://skoolkit.ca/disassemblies/jet_set_willy/reference/pokes.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZfMtKSk7BS90zuXJZOK6RgAAAQk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfMtKSk7BS90zuXJZOK6RgAAAQk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfMtKSk7BS90zuXJZOK6RgAAAQk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfMtKSk7BS90zuXJZOK6RgAAAQk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2024/03/09/jpls-voyager-team-extremely-hopeful-after-ailing-faraway-craft-shows-signs-of-former-self/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/engineers_work_to_revive_voyager/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/lessons_from_the_voyager_probes/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/voyager_2_jupiter_research/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/14/engineers_work_to_fix_voyager/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/14/engineers_work_to_fix_voyager/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfMtKSk7BS90zuXJZOK6RgAAAQk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Perspective
They'd have done that. But the bloke with the big reset-hammer had his credit card rejected, when he tried to fuel his van to get out there.
Apparently there weren't enough noughts on the diesel pump.
So they tried swearing at it. But in space, nobody can hear you scream, "work you bastard thing!"
So now they've been reduced to debugging it. I must say I'll be disappointed if they're analysing their newly downloaded data on computers, rather than massive stacks of fanfold paper as God intended. Was that an earhquake in California? No, just JPL's daisywheel printers...
V'Ger
I guess we don't need to worry unless it turns around and starts heading towards earth ...
Re: V'Ger
Maybe in a couple of hundred years, it will come back as part of a massive space ship that essentially absorbs everything it encounters?
Re: V'Ger
In the movie, we learn that V'Ger started out as Voyager 6.
Fun fact - The Voyager program originally planned for 6 spacecraft launches.
(Sighs)
They just don't build kit to those standards any more.
Re: (Sighs)
Well, Boeing for sure.
Real Time
Not real-time communication in computing terms, but communication that takes real time!
I take my hat off to the team that still supports this wonderful piece of equipment which just keeps on giving.
Re: Real Time
Not just the team who supports it, but the ones maintaining the big dishes and their equipment that are needed to talk to them. I know the 70metres are due to be decommissioned next year though.
If ever there was a use case for LLM
Create a VM using existing documentation
Train a LLM on the syntax
etc, etc....
Re: If ever there was a use case for LLM
But when the LLM has a hallucination resulting in a command being sent that trashes Voyager - then what ?
V1 is priceless, irreplaceable - handle with extreme care!
Re: If ever there was a use case for LLM
That is the singularly most awful idea I've ever heard.
You know that all such "AI" just collapses into a heap of nonsense the second it has to think for itself, receives unexpected data or strays outside its training boundaries, right?
Just a thought
If I was in charge I would put the 'digital twin' on the web so that Joe Public could have a crack at fixing it.
With so many people in parallel tinkering, someone must come up with the answer fairly soon.
And of course, you don't have the long turn around time to try your changes.
Re: Just a thought
Do you want to teach the public how to take over a satellite? You know there’s at least one nutbag with the tools to sniff the traffic who will try to run Doom on V’ger
Re: Just a thought
But does he have the dosh to rent a dish?
Re: Just a thought
" With so many people in parallel tinkering, someone must come up with the answer fairly soon "
The million monkeys and Shakespeare? The big problem is knowing when you have the right answer so you can stop, and that takes the expertise (genius, or whatever) that's intrinsically missing from a crowd source, as it's an individual capacity.
Infinite lives in Jet Set willy
Fine, until you fall in from the top of the screen a die infinite times.
Poking Jet Set Willy
Some people are alleged to have used pokes to bypass the copy-protection in Jet Set Willy. Being an honest, upstanding memeber of society, *I* would never have done that.
Decoding Voyager
I don't recall who originally posted this link to decoding Voyager 1 data but this is it: https://destevez.net/2021/09/decoding-voyager-1/
Hats off to the original designers and the ongoing skills which contribute to our continued fascination on this project. And publicising/distributing the processes. Have one of these ---->
Great news
It's almost Friday and we get some positive news on Voyager.
Never ceases to amaze me that it's still going. I know one day it will stop, but always brings me some joy to know it's still out there, talking back to us after such an incredibly long time. Well done space boffins, I salute you!
An engineer with the Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to decode it
Did it say "All your base are belong to us"?
The saddest part of this story. . .
"Many of the engineers who worked on the project - Voyager 1 launched in 1977 - are no longer around,. . ."
May I meet all of you in "Nerd Valhalla" when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Thanks for bringing knowledge, inspiration, and beauty into this life.
Elsewhere, it was mentioned that the original plan for the Voyager probes was for this grand tour. Then the US Senate cut the funding and the engineers had to sharped their pencils. It's looking like the Voyager probes might outlast the humans who tried to shorten its life.
Ah! Memories!
>...and the team that remains is faced with trawling through reams of decades-old documents to deal with unanticipated issues
I remember 'documentation' -- I'm about the same vintage as the Voyager originals (but still upright, more or less) and how we used to have to write reams of it as part of the process of designing software. So old fashioned, so quaint. These days you're supposed to clone a project from GitHub and watch a couple of ad-hoc videos. (There's nothing inherently wrong with GitHub, of course, apart gnawing misgivings about corporate parentage / patronage but a quick video doesn't have the same 'je ne sais quoi' of actual documentation -- many videos are surprisingly content-free!)
For those who don't quite get it, actually writing documentation is an important step in the design process. We're not talking about user manuals or repair documents, that stuff is best left to professional writers, but being able to crystallize out your ideas and get the straight before writing any code can shorten the actual coding and testing phases dramatically. (....and yes, I've had to do this in the dark days before word processors....)
Perspective
That puts my current system down in perspective. The fix:
Log into the VM Host, restart VM and it all starts working again ...