NASA Finds Cause of Voyager 2 Glitch 283
astroengine writes "Earlier this month, engineers suspended Voyager 2's science measurements because of an unexpected problem in its communications stream. A glitch in the flight data system, which formats information for radioing to Earth, was believed to be the problem. Now NASA has found the cause of the issue: it was a single memory bit that had erroneously flipped from a 0 to a 1. The cause of the error is yet to be understood, but NASA plans to reset Voyager's memory tomorrow, clearing the error."
Sometimes, if you do things right... (Score:5, Funny)
So.... reboot? (Score:5, Funny)
Why don't they just always try that first?
Re:Really? (Score:4, Funny)
Let me guess: cosmic ray. Is it really that hard? What else causes a single bit-flip error in space?
Incredibly annoying alien hackers?
Re:So.... reboot? (Score:1, Funny)
It doesn't work unless you hit f8 and go into safe mode.
What!? No parity checking?! (Score:1, Funny)
Finally, we found a use for ECC RAM!
Must suck waiting 26 hours to find out if the reboot worked...
Re:Cosmci Ra (Score:5, Funny)
What else would it be?
According to some German, aliens [thefirstpost.co.uk].
W
PS is "Cosmci Ra" related to Mumm-Ra? Or She-Ra for that matter?
Re:Have you tried..... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
V'Ger is unwilling to just transfer the data to its Creator...
Re:Have you tried..... (Score:3, Funny)
All that and no "Try SCE to aux"?
Re:Really? (Score:3, Funny)
Actually it was a metric "0" that got switched to an imperial "1".
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So.... reboot? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So.... reboot? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sometimes, if you do things right... (Score:5, Funny)
Unbelievable (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:3, Funny)
Finally, joke about Windows all you want ... if you do a default installation of Windows and you don't install any additional drivers or software, it is extremely stable and will just sit there for ages happy to do nothing but tick away.
Let me just OT for a moment here: if you didn't install any drivers or software... it'd just sit there, period, and you wouldn't be too happy about this slightly warm expensive paperweight you just bought. What on earth is the point of a computer without additional software?
Re:Really? (Score:1, Funny)
we use a binary postfix that is identical to a SI prefix
Re:What!? No parity checking?! (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, thats just like rebooting a Windows 2003 server. 14 days and it's still "Applying Computer Settings"
Re:Really? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, the problems only come when you try to use the keyboard or mouse.
Re:Sometimes, if you do things right... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Funny)
Reset the memory? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, okay, as long as they don't get the "Press any key to continue" message...
Re:Reset the memory? (Score:4, Funny)
NASA technician #1: Voyager 2 is sending a text string to inform us of its status.
(Looks at screen.)
NASA technician #2: Did the reboot work? What does it say?
NASA technician #1: "Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue."
Re:Just incredible! (Score:4, Funny)
Classic, ever repeated confusion of what "power" is. Unless you mean volts times amps, power is what you can do with it.
Have you ever kissed a girl?
Re:Just incredible! (Score:5, Funny)
Have you ever kissed a girl?
This is the wrong place to ask for dating advice.
Re:Analogue amplification gives even harmonics (Score:3, Funny)
Analogue amplification gives even harmonics whereas digital amplification gives odd harmonics. And even harmonics are more pleasing to the ear. You can obviate the problem of odd harmonics by producing more harmonics to nudge the signal back to more pleasing shapes, but that means that an op-amp running at 192kHz can produce a pseudo-analogue amplified signal equating to an analogue amplifier with a ceiling of 30kHz.
It's one reason why early CDs were, frankly, crap: the sound engineers used the same techniques making the sound track for the CD that they did for the analogue LP. But the CD has different strengths and weaknesses and some processes that utilised the strength of LP and avoided the weakness of them were unsuited to the CD characteristics.
AFAIR, the re-release of the White Album was the first one where they went back to the original tapes and worked the signal to accord with the CD and digital amplification strengths.
Now they're ditching the high dynamic range of CD in the loudness war.
Way to go, guys.
All I hear is: "Blah blah blah tube blah blah loud blah blah" *ringing in my ears*
Re:Just incredible! (Score:2, Funny)
Though in your case, I think it's more than just one bit that's flipped. I've read some of your posts Mr. AC.