Tag: Voyager

Ed Stone, who led NASA’s iconic Voyager project for 50 years, dies at 88

NeRD

Humanity has lost an interstellar pioneer. Ed Stone, who served as the project scientist for NASA’s groundbreaking Voyager mission from 1972 to 2022, died on Sunday (June 9) at the age of 88. “Ed Stone was a trailblazer who dared mighty things in space. He was a dear friend to all who knew him, and a cherished mentor to me personally,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in NASA’s obituary for Stone, which the agency posted on Tuesday (June 11).  “Ed…

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NASA’s Voyager 1 probe in interstellar space can’t phone home (again) due to glitch

NeRD

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe is currently unable to transmit any scientific or systems data back to Earth. The 46-year-old spacecraft is capable of receiving commands, but a problem seems to have arisen with the probe’s computers. Voyager 1’s flight data system (FDS), which collects onboard engineering information and data from the spacecraft’s scientific instruments, is no longer communicating as expected with the probe’s telecommunications unit (TMU), according to a NASA blog post on Dec. 12.  When functioning properly, the FDS compiles the spacecraft’s info into a data package, which is…

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