NASA just sent a spacecraft 23 billion miles from Earth to LIFE and the results are astonishing.

In late June, researchers reported that Voyager 1 was sending data back to Earth that showed it had lost its orientation in space. Overall, the probe’s problems are not surprising since it was originally sent on a five-year journey through the solar system. Meanwhile, 45 years have passed since the probe was launched from the Earth’s surface. So the flaws should not surprise anyone.

On the other hand, as long as the probe is operational, everything must be done to keep it alive for as long as possible.After all, Voyager 1 and its sister ship Voyager 2 are providing Earth with information about interstellar space, where we won’t be getting another probe anytime soon.

Controllers analyzing data sent by the probe have just announced that Voyager 1 is once again transmitting accurate telemetry data back to Earth. It was known from the beginning that the error was related to the system responsible for ensuring the probe’s antennas were always pointed toward Earth. If the antenna flips, we will lose contact with the spacecraft (and the history of space exploration knows too many such cases).

Engineers discovered that somehow this antenna control system had begun transmitting telemetry data through an onboard computer that had been decommissioned for many years. It was this computer that falsified the data, which then appeared on Earth as a series of illogical information.

Once this was established, engineers sent commands to the probe forcing the information to be sent through the correct computer. The problem disappeared when he held it in his hand. Of course, it takes some time to see whether the remedy is effective or not. After all, Voyager 1 was more than 23 billion miles from Earth, which means the signal sent from Earth would have traveled toward the probe in 22 hours. The signal confirming the execution of the command is also directed towards Earth.

After the probe returned to normal operations, the question arose: how could the probe suddenly start using a computer that everyone had long forgotten? In the coming weeks, scientists will analyze all the recordings from the probe’s onboard computer to determine the cause of all this confusion. Maybe it all started with a bad command sent to the devices by another computer on the plane.Failure is unlikely to happen again, but researchers are still curious to know what might be going on in the “brain” of the 45-year-old probe.