NASA engineers are trying to fix a mysterious glitch in Voyager 1, the man-made spacecraft that is the farthest from Earth.. But the job isn't easy, as Voyagers were built and launched in the 1970s, Science Alert reports..

The Voyager series devices were designed in 1977, it was calculated that they would work for five years, studying Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, as well as their satellites. But 45 years have passed, and the devices still continue to work..

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Since the development of Voyager was carried out in the 1970s mostly on paper, some documentation may have been lost.. In the first 12 years of the mission, thousands of engineers worked on it.. But they retired in the 70s and 80s, and they never created a library of project documents.. Therefore, modern NASA employees have to make great efforts to find all the necessary data..

The spacecraft's attitude control system, which sends telemetry data back to Earth, determines Voyager 1's attitude in space, and keeps the spacecraft's antenna pointed at our planet, allowing it to transmit the data home.

Now scientists have begun to receive distorted telemetry data, so they cannot say for sure whether the system is working.. So far, engineers have not been able to find the cause of the failure due to the fact that they were unable to restart the system.. This is probably due to the "

But the glitch that occurred in Voyager's operation could also be related to its location in interstellar space.. The data received from the apparatus show that high-energy particles are also present there.. It's unlikely they hit Voyager, but if they did, it could have damaged the electronics.. Despite the failure, the device still continues to receive commands from the Earth, and its antenna is directed towards our planet..

At the moment, engineers are turning off non-technical instruments on Voyagers, such as heaters for scientific instruments, in the hope that in this way it will be possible to extend the life of the devices until the 2030s..

Voyager 2, the twin of Voyager 1, is the first and only spacecraft to reach Uranus (in January 1986) and Neptune (in August 1989). In total, 625 gigabytes of data were transmitted from both spacecraft to Earth.. According to scientists, fuel reserves will allow the Voyager series devices to remain operational for another ten years.. Then communication with the Earth will be lost..