I built VoyagerOTA while working on a side project with some firmware and a mobile app. My firmware needed a way to get OTA (over-the-air) updates, but most tools I found were too complex or only worked on local networks. So I decided to build something simple myself. It helped me fix the issue and also gave me a way to learn some backend stuff along the way.
The name VoyagerOTA comes from the Voyager probes by NASA. They’re still out there in space, slowly sending back data to Earth. What stuck with me most was the Golden Record they carry music and messages from Earth, sent into space with the small hope that someone, someday, might find them.
I also read this story about how Voyager 1 started having problems way out in space. NASA didn’t give up they called back the retired engineers and programmers who originally worked on it. Some of them had already passed away by then, but the ones who were still around came together, dug through old blueprints, ran tests, and somehow figured out how to send a small software fix across billions of miles. And it actually worked. Voyager came back online. I think of that mission and the people behind it as one of humanity’s most humble engineering marvels. In a quiet way, building this platform has felt like a small tribute to them.
Those things made me want to build something of my own, even if it's small. VoyagerOTA isn’t perfect, but it works. I got to fix something real, learn new things, and send something out into the world. Like a small signal, just to see where it might go.