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NASA relies on forgotten tech to keep Voyager alive
20 May
Summary
- Voyager spacecraft uses assembly code written nearly 50 years ago.
- Its computers have less memory than a modern smartphone image.
- Original engineers are gone, leaving knowledge gaps.
Launched in 1977, NASA's Voyager spacecraft are still operational, but they depend on assembly language code written nearly 50 years ago. These interstellar explorers utilize onboard computers with a combined memory of approximately 64 to 70 kilobytes, significantly less than a single image file on today's smartphones. The flight software, updated around the time of Voyager 2's Neptune flyby in August 1989, now requires specialized knowledge.
Maintaining these aging probes is increasingly difficult as the original engineering team has largely passed away. The last engineer from the initial Voyager project retired in 2016. This institutional knowledge gap is a growing concern, as the spacecraft's signal now takes over 23 hours to reach Earth, and repairs become more complex with fading human expertise and diminishing power sources.
