The NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft is currently sending a 4:20 hour playback of data from its 8-track digital tape recorder (DTR).
Tx rate = 1.4 kbps instead of the normal 160 bps; it requires simultaneous reception by 5 antennas at the NASA DSN Madrid site.
1.4 kbps * 4:20 hours = 2.7 Mbytes
The DTR records data from the plasma wave instrument which is sent to Earth twice a year..
Several issues onboard and on the ground have prevented such playback since July 2024.
Yes, the two Voyager spacecraft each carry an 8-track reel-to-reel digital tape recorder (DTR) for storing data collected by the Plasma Wave System (PWS).
Capacity: ~67 Mbytes
Tape width: 1/2 inch
Tape length: 328 m
The DTR on Voyager 2 is no longer used because a PWS part failed in 2007.
And after 47 years in space, the DTR and many other instruments on Voyager are still ticking!
DTR info: https://hackaday.com/2018/11/29/interstellar-8-track-the-low-tech-data-recorders-of-voyager/
#Voyager
2/n
Holy shit. Nothing says 'obsolete' like an 8 track tape but who'd have thought they could outlive all of us.
We had an 8 track player in the 1970s. (I assume NASA's is better.)
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