Editing Binary Golay code (section)

=== NASA deep space missions ===
Error correction was vital to data transmission in the [[Voyager program|Voyager]] 1 and 2 spacecraft particularly because memory constraints dictated offloading data virtually instantly leaving no second chances.  Hundreds of color pictures of [[Jupiter]] and [[Saturn]] in their 1979, 1980, and 1981 fly-bys would be transmitted within a constrained telecommunications bandwidth.  Color image transmission required three times as much data as black and white images, so the 7-error correcting [[Reed–Muller code]] that had been used to transmit the black and white Mariner images was replaced with the much higher data rate Golay (24,12,8) code.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www-math.ucdenver.edu/~wcherowi/courses/m7409/mariner9talk.pdf |title=Combinatorics in Space - The Mariner 9 Telemetry System |last=Cherowitzo |first=Bill |publisher=[[University of Colorado Denver]] |access-date=2012-06-06 |archive-date=2013-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927082620/http://www-math.ucdenver.edu/~wcherowi/courses/m7409/mariner9talk.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>