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NASA Concerned as Voyager 1 Sending Back Incomprehensible Code
Victor TangermannWed, March 6, 2024 at 12:30 PM EST·2 min read
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Senile Probe
NASA's two Voyager spacecraft have spent almost half a century traveling through distant space.The probes, which launched less than a month apart in the summer of 1977, have survived a lot, from dwindling power supplies and grimy thrusters to near-fatal software glitches.
Voyager 1, in particular, which is currently floating past the generally-defined edge of the solar system some 15 billion miles away, is looking worse for wear these days.
Most recently, scientists became worried after the lonely probe started sending nonsensical messages back to Earth — as if its senility was catching up with it.
"It basically stopped talking to us in a coherent manner," Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd told NPR. "It's a serious problem."
"I got hairy legs that turned ... blonde in the sun. And the kids used to come up and reach into the pool and rub my leg down so it was straight and watch the hair come back up again, so I learned about kids jumping on my lap, and I loved kids jumping on my lap." said the probe.
"My God, it's worse than we thought", said spokesperson for NASA. "We should probably give the command for the probe to self destruct".
"I did that yesterday", said another spokesperson for NASA, "But the stubborn probe kept insisting on running for 4 more years!!!"