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Short Wave

The Recent Glitch Threatening Voyager 1

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 β€’ 6K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

The Voyager 1 space probe is the farthest human-made object in space. It launched in 1977 with a golden record on board that carried assorted sounds of our home planet: greetings in many different languages, dogs barking, and the sound of two people kissing, to name but a few examples. The idea with this record was that someday, Voyager 1 might be our emissary to alien life – an audible time capsule of Earth's beings. Since its launch, it also managed to complete missions to Jupiter and Saturn. In 2012, it crossed into interstellar space.

But a few months ago, the probe encountered a problem. "It's an elderly spacecraft," says NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce, "and it had some kind of electronic stroke." Greenfieldboyce talks to Short Wave Host Regina G. Barber about the precarious status of Voyager 1 – the glitch threatening its mission, and the increasingly risky measures NASA is taking to try and restore it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:17.0

You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

0:22.0

Hey shortwaivers, Regina Barber here, and today we're going to check in on an intrepid piece of space

0:28.1

hardware known as Voyager 1. The Space Probe launched in 1977 and even back then scientists knew it would

0:35.0

venture far far out beyond our solar system.

0:38.0

Hello from the children of planet Earth.

0:41.0

That's why Carl Sagan and his buddies got NASA to put a golden record on board with greetings in many languages.

0:47.0

I'm going to

0:48.0

Hovna women to his parents

0:50.0

their life And sounds of Earth like a

0:55.8

of Earth like a dog barking.

0:57.4

The idea was that maybe someday aliens would encounter the spacecraft and learn about the life forms that created it.

1:07.0

Voyager 1 is now about 15 billion miles away.

1:10.0

Believe it or not, it still has power and talks to controllers back here on Earth.

1:15.0

But a few months ago, it developed a problem.

1:18.0

A serious problem.

1:19.0

And whenever we need to check in with aging space hardware, we turn to NPR's N.

1:23.6

N. P. R. Nell. So tell us what's going on.

1:28.6

My understanding is that Voyager 1 is not making any sense right now.

1:31.8

Its messages are just like incoherent.

1:34.0

That is in fact, sadly the case.

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