To conserve power and to extend the life of the mission, one more instrument on each of the Voyager probes is being shut down - Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem experiment on Feb 25 and Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24.
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To conserve power and to extend the life of the mission, one more instrument on each of the Voyager probes is being shut down - Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem experiment on Feb 25 and Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24.
The Voyagers should have enough power to operate for about a year before the team needs to shut off another instrument on both spacecraft. The 2 probes could operate with at least one science instrument into the 2030s
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Can't we send Musk to refuel it… personally?
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The Voyager probes are powered by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) which convert heat from decaying Plutonium Pu-238 into electricity using thermocouples.
In 47 years, the power level has dropped by over 50% to ~222 watts.
Pu-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years, i.e., in 87.7 years, 50% of its atoms decay to uranium-234 and then to lead-206.
The bi-metallic thermocouples, which are quite inefficient to begin with, also degrade over time, leading to a net loss of ~4W per year.
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Let's take a moment to marvel at the design of the Voyager spacecraft. Built using 1970s technology - computing hardware/software, instruments, RTGs, thrusters, comms, etc. - most of which are still operational after 47 years in the harsh environment of space, 23:14 and 19:30 light hours away resp., with no maintenance or repairs, just workarounds around few failures, quietly exploring where no spacecraft has explored before.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/
#Voyager
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Here is another impressive factoid about Voyager, the overachiever.
The Cosmic Ray Subsystem (a suite of 3 telescopes designed to study cosmic rays) and the Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument both use a rotating platform, powered by a stepper motor that provides a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds. The motor was tested to 500,000 steps, enough to last until the encounter with Saturn. By the time the LECP is deactivated on Voyager 2, it will have completed over 8.5 million steps.
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