'It was tremendously exciting': NASA re-establishes communication with Voyager 1

For the first time in five months, NASA has received decipherable-data from Voyager 1.

Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker said one of the computer chips in the memory had failed.

“It was a hardware failure and so we had to reprogram around that bit of memory, moving that piece of code to a different place and then starting it up again. So last Saturday we got data back again from Voyager 1,” she said in an interview with CTV's Bruce Frisko on Wednesday.

“It was tremendously exciting. I was all smiles. People were high-fiving and cheering and also a relief to be once again communicating with Voyager 1. The next step is to continue that reprograming effort so we can get the science data back.”

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Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977. After achieving their primary goals of flying by and exploring the four outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the spacecraft’s are now providing data on interstellar space.

“Basically interstellar space is made up of explosions from stars and super nova explosions that send their material into space,” said Spilker. “So Voyager now for the first time is sampling that material. So it’s very exciting to be exploring in a place that no spacecraft has ever explored before.”

Spilker said each Voyager sends back eight to ten hours of data each day and will eventually run out of power.

“Eventually there won’t be enough power to run the systems on Voyager. We will start to turn the science instruments off one by one and slowly they will be so little power that they will get really cold and that will be the end of the Voyager mission as far as sending back data,” she said.

According to Spilker, each Voyager carries a golden record that has pictures, music and the sights and sounds form the Earth.

“So we sent a galactic message in a bottle out to whoever might find it and there’s even a diagram on the cover of where we are so they can come find us,” she said.

“I think that Voyager has taught us that there are a lot of amazing surprises out there and that there is still a lot to learn.”