Voyager 1 Is Sending Back ‘Impossible’ Data From Interstellar Space

The mission team continues to search for the source of a system data issue as the spacecraft continues to return scientific data. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft engineering team is trying to solve a puzzle. The interstellar explorer continues to gather and return science data; it is receiving and executing commands from Earth normally. Mystery in Deep Space: Voyager 1 Data Does not Reflect What’s Really Happening on Board.

However, the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) doesn’t provide an accurate representation of what’s going on aboard. Orientation of the spacecraft is taken care of by the AACS. The high-gain antenna on Voyager 1 keeps the spacecraft pointed precisely at Earth so that it can send data back to Earth.

There is no indication that the AACS is malfunctioning, but the telemetry data it is returning is invalid. For example, the data was generated at random or was not indicative of any state that AACS could be in.