NASA Powers Down Voyager Instruments to Preserve Space Mission

The twin Voyager probes, launched in 1977, are shutting down non-essential instruments to conserve dwindling energy supplies as they continue their journey beyond the solar system.

• NASA has begun turning off scientific instruments on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft to conserve their limited power supply generated by decaying plutonium.
• Both probes, launched in 1977, are the farthest human-made objects from Earth, located 25 billion and 21 billion kilometers away, respectively.
• Voyager 1 recently ceased a cosmic-ray experiment in February, while Voyager 2 will deactivate a low-energy particle detector by the end of March, leaving three active instruments on each probe.
• The spacecraft lose about four watts of power annually, and NASA anticipates further instrument shutdowns within a year to extend the mission into the 2030s.
• The Voyagers have exceeded their original mission to study outer planets, now providing valuable data on interstellar space after crossing the heliosphere, a boundary shaped by solar wind.

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