Voyager 1 loses contact with NASA, turns on retro transmitter not used since 1981
Voyager 1 loses contact with NASA, turns on retro transmitter not used since 1981
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.
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"
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
A hacker has hijacked the communication relay and managed to install Doom on the Voyager. The game runs perfectly but the user interface is reported to be somewhat laggy.
... He then went on to check if he could run Crysis on it.
Humans will be extinct, and Voyager will still be carrying our mixtape through eternity.
Talk about a slow troubleshooting process. Thats, what, 80,000,000ms latency?
And any useful answer thread on stackoverflow is archived.
Your post "Received error code 0459 from 1981 JPL Transmitter Array" has been marked as a Duplicate.
And still it won't quit.
It is quite legit.
Some would say, too legit, even.
I get it. Sometimes my voice gets hoarse too.
Always have a backup. You may not use it for 43 years, but you’ll be glad it’s there when you do.
I'm only 41 years old.
This recievier has been working for my whole life, goes out of service 15 billion miles away, turns on a backup reciever, and is now back in contact with NASA.
.........but the ice cream machine at McDonalds is still broken.