NASA's Voyager is sending strange messages from interstellar space - Mashable
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is sending back some funky data from interstellar space that's leaving NASA engineers scratching their heads.
Readouts on the orientation of the 1970s-era space probe now appear to be randomly generated or don't reflect any possible scenario the spacecraft could be in, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory officials said this week.The problematic data are coming from the so-called "attitude articulation and control system," or AACS, the onboard equipment that measures, reports, and changes the position of the vehicle in space.The interstellar dream is dying."A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 in a NASA statement released Wednesday.Interstellar space is a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft has ever flown in before, she said, so surprises are almost expected to arise.