Upgrading your desktop computer is hard enough, but NASA has rejuvenated a computer that’s twice as far away as the planet Pluto. Last week engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, activated the back-up star tracker and Sun sensor on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched in 1977. The back-up systems were included in case the original navigational system failed, but engineers hope they will give the spacecraft a new lease of life as it begins to map the edge of the Solar System, where the influence of the solar wind gives way to interstellar space.
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from Âé¶¹´«Ã½
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending Âé¶¹´«Ã½ articles
1
Are Neanderthals descendants of modern humans?
2
Electric vehicle owners could earn thousands by supporting power grid
3
The biggest threat to Chernobyl is no longer radiation
4
Is a super El Niño imminent, and what could the impacts be?
5
Exclusive report: Inside Chernobyl, 40 years after nuclear disaster
6
Neanderthal infants were enormous compared with modern humans
7
Why the right kind of stress is crucial for your health and happiness
8
We might finally know how to use quantum computers to boost AI
9
The rise, the fall and the rebound of cyclic cosmology
10
The simple questions cracking the hard problem of consciousness



