An illustration of the Voyager 2 spacecraft exploring space beyond our solar system (Image credit: NASA/Robert Lea (created with Canva))
NASA engineers are shutting down two devices to ensure that the two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, can continue exploring beyond the solar system.
To conserve power for future interstellar exploration, mission scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) turned off Voyager 1's cosmic-ray experimental subsystem on Feb. 25. They plan to turn off Voyager 2's low-energy charged-particle instrument on March 24.
Launched in 1977 and carrying the same set of ten instruments, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. Unsurprisingly, both spacecraft are running on depleted power sources. After all, they each traveled a combined 29 billion miles, making them the farthest man-made objects from Earth.
“The Voyagers have been the stars of deep space since they launched, and we want to keep that going for as long as possible,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL. “But power is running low. If we don’t turn off the instruments on each Voyager now, they’ll likely only have a few months left!”
Life beyond the solar system
Both Voyager spacecraft use a power system that generates electricity from the heat released by the decay of a radioactive isotope of plutonium.
This radioisotope power system loses about 4 watts of power from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 each year. In the 1980s, some instruments on board both spacecraft were turned off as they completed their exploration of the giant planets of the solar system, extending the life of both probes.
To conserve power, NASA operators will shut down Voyager 2's plasma science experiment in October 2024. The experiment was designed to measure the amount of plasma passing by and the direction it was traveling. Voyager 2's instrument had collected limited data in previous years due to the probe's orientation relative to the flow of plasma beyond the solar system.
Voyager 1's plasma science instrument stopped functioning properly in 1980 and was turned off in 2007 to save power.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
