Distant Spacecraft Power Down Instruments as They Venture into Interstellar Space
Subscribe to 's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Dive into the cosmos through updates on captivating findings, technological progressions, and additional developments. . NASA's two Voyager spacecraft, which were launched 47 years ago, are now deactivating certain scientific instruments as part of efforts to save power and prolong their historic missions. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 continue to investigate unknown regions within interstellar space. On February 25, engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, California, issued instructions to deactivate the cosmic ray subsystem experiment aboard Voyager 1. Additionally, starting March 24, Voyager 2 will cease operations of its low-energy charged particle instrument. As a result, both probes now retain only three operational scientific devices. When released just weeks apart in 1977, the Voyager spacecraft were equipped with matching suites of 10 scientific tools. However, over ...