But if one were looking for a sci-fi(-ish) moment (as we earlier mentioned), this finally… might be it.
JPL says that the spacecraft mysteriously started trying to send its telemetry data back through an onboard computer that failed decades ago. [The team long ago decommissioned that errant processor.]
And NASA is not sure why it would have done so, unless something else is affecting its operating software. This however is the official statement; and my bracketed largely fanciful guess, immediately below.
[So, if there were any extra-terrestrial AI machines (of any sort) beaming intermittent radio waves at V’ger… that might manifest by a reboot, to start sending telemetry data via the busted old computer, on board. I’ll admit that this is a very odd way to reveal intelligence to Earth, after-all if the AI is smart enough to reconfigure sixty year old software on the fly, it is certainly smart enough to know that the data stream is being sent home to Earth. That is, why not just beam back directly to Earth “take us to your leader” or some such? Who knows?] Here is the JPL/NASA release, in any event:
…Engineers don’t yet know why the AACS started routing telemetry data to the incorrect computer, but it likely received a faulty command generated by another onboard computer. If that’s the case, it would indicate there is an issue somewhere else on the spacecraft. The team will continue to search for that underlying issue, but they don’t think it is a threat to the long-term health of Voyager 1.
“We’re happy to have the telemetry back,” said Dodd. “We’ll do a full memory readout of the AACS and look at everything it’s been doing. That will help us try to diagnose the problem that caused the telemetry issue in the first place. So we’re cautiously optimistic, but we still have more investigating to do….”
Indeed — I think they… do. Smiling… out, and g’night….
नमस्ते
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