Voyager 1 is a success story far past what the designers could have ever hoped for. This little engine that could is way out past Pluto, even out of the Sun's Heliosphere - so past where the Sun has any effect.
But that isn't the most amazing thing. The most amazing thing is that it has been updated and fixes itself repeatedly. The mission has been called dead, along with its twin Voyager 2, many times over the years. But Voyager 1 has been toiling away since 1977.
And NASA delivers software updates remotely. That is much more impressive than you might think. There was no IBM, MSDOS, mouse, or interface you could see. The amount of space that was necessary for the most basic computer built 10 years later would have taken up to 1800 sq feet in 1977. The very first Apple II was delivered (which was the first Apple) which came with game paddles for PONG.
So, think of this: that type of computer has been in the empty, frozen space between worlds and even objects for 48 years, and it was just remotely updated again.
That means someone has to reprogram in a language that was built on punch cards and that no one knows anymore. And how much memory does it have to work with:
Voyager 1's computers have 69.63 kilobytes of memory, which is roughly enough to store a standard internet JPEG file. This is about 3 million times less memory than a mobile phone.
Amazing!
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