Science Behind Things

Voyager 2

Ever since April 22 of this year, Voyager 2 has not been doing well at its distance of 8.6 billion (8,600,000,000) miles from earth, as it travels literally faster than a speeding bullet toward the edge of the solar system.  But it may only be a fixable hiccup that is contributing to the 33 year old spacecraft.  It may be suffering from a bit flip.  A bit flip is defined as an unintentional state switch from 0 to 1, or vice versa, of a bit stored to random access memory or other medium.  Since computer language is ultimately just ones and zeros, switching them is like switching letters of the alphabet and then trying to communicate with another person.  Voyager should soon be back in working order and communicating valuable information from 13 light- hours out in space.

Source: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1005/11voyager2/