It takes 45 years to traverse the solar system.
In 2012 the NASA's Voyager 1 mission passed into what scientists call interstellar space, a distance of 23.3 billion kilometers from Earth. The scientists on the mission noticed that the spaceship appeared confused about its location in space without sounding an alarm.
Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for the two probes, said in a statement that a mystery like this is par for the course at this stage of the mission.
Our place in the universe was revealed by the Pale Blue Dot at 30.
Dodd said that the mission planners anticipated that the spacecraft would be almost 45 years old.
The glitch is related to the attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, which keeps the spaceship in the correct orientation. The AACS seems to be working well, since it is receiving commands and sending science data back to Earth with the same signal strength as usual. The AACS is sending junk data.
The NASA statement doesn't say when the issue began or how long it's lasted.
The agency says that the personnel from Voyager will continue to investigate the issue and try to find a solution. It takes 20 hours and 33 minutes for a signal from Earth to reach the craft, and it takes the same amount of time for the response to arrive.
NASA said that the twin Voyager 2 probe is functioning normally. Mission team members are trying to save juice by turning off some components in order to keep the probes working.
Dodd said that there are some big challenges for the engineering team.
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