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NASA Finds Cause of Voyager 2 Glitch

Posted by kdawson on from the blame-cosmic-rays dept.

astroengine writes "Earlier this month, engineers suspended Voyager 2's science measurements because of an unexpected problem in its communications stream. A glitch in the flight data system, which formats information for radioing to Earth, was believed to be the problem. Now NASA has found the cause of the issue: it was a single memory bit that had erroneously flipped from a 0 to a 1. The cause of the error is yet to be understood, but NASA plans to reset Voyager's memory tomorrow, clearing the error."

9 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by atomicthumbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The cause of the error is yet to be understood

    Let me guess: cosmic ray. Is it really that hard? What else causes a single bit-flip error in space?

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    1. Re:Really? by pclminion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let me guess: cosmic ray. Is it really that hard? What else causes a single bit-flip error in space?

      When you have a probe billions of miles from Earth, with no hope of ever physically retrieving it, and something weird happens, I don't think the first thing you do is start making assumptions.

    2. Re:Really? by Peach+Rings · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's pretty amazing that they even were able to track the problem down to a particular bit. No general purpose operating system has anything even remotely having dreams of approaching that level of reliability and stability. It's nice to see the strengths of bare-metal hacking demonstrated in this bleary age of big-button-pushing Java and .NET.

    3. Re:Really? by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its also extremely important to note that not a single item you own is made to the specifications that Voyagers were made, even though made over 30 years ago.

      Its also rather important to note that as unstable as most OSes are, they are several million times more complex than the code Voyager 1 and 2 run.

      Finally, joke about Windows all you want ... if you do a default installation of Windows and you don't install any additional drivers or software, it is extremely stable and will just sit there for ages happy to do nothing but tick away.

      Its also entirely feasable to find 1 stuck or flipped bit even using Java and .NET, you just have to actually understand the inner workings of this code which is not something pretty much any developer working in these environments has time to do these days.

      Both things may be computers that run code and use electricity to do so, but thats about where the shared bits end. These guys have been using the same code for 30+ years ... they kinda know how it works and all its quirks at this point.

      With all that said ... you're still right, its freaky impressive.

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  2. Re:So.... reboot? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why don't they just always try that first?

            Because sometimes it doesn't come back on again.

          Brett

  3. 33 years and still going strong - nuclear FTW by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is why you DO WANT nuclear energy in space! OK, Voyager 1 and 2 have RTGs, but even those are considered politically incorrect these days, especially such massive ones as in the Voyagers.

    More nuclear power in spacecraft, I say. To provide propulsion (ion drive, or even better, explosive drive) and energy when far from the Sun. Fuck PC.

    --
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  4. Hero by LoudMusic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    NASA is my hero. They do cool shit all the time. Even when their stuff breaks, it's cool. Then they fix it and it's even more cool.

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  5. Just incredible! by mcrbids · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Voyager is anything but brand new. Voyager is probably older than most Slashdotters, having been launched in 1977. Think about it: 1977 - when advanced microchips were not as powerful as the chip driving the shatty calculator you buy today at the dollar store. 1977 was a different time, when information technology usually didn't even involve transistors, yet, and vacuum tube testers (for your TV) were still found at the local drug store.

    And yet, some 33 years later, Voyager 2 is still chugging on, after visiting ALL of the outer planets, still going waaayayyyyyyy past its original design limits, still providing meaningful information on its way out roughly towards the star Sirius. It's now twice as far away from the Sun as Pluto is.

    Like the Mars rovers, this is truly good engineering at work.

    --
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    1. Re:Just incredible! by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      tubes had that nice desirable sweet distortion...

      There, fixed that for ya...

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.