In August and September 1977, NASA launched from Cabo Cañaveral two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, to study the exterior borders of the Solar System. No one might think then that these two artifacts would remain in operation 47 years later, moving more and more from the earth in the unknown regions of interstellar space. No object built by humanity has gone so far. But such a long trip passes. The electrical energy of the twin probes is gradually exhausted, to the point that, if no measures are taken, the end of the mission could be declared “in a few months.” To avoid this, NASA has decided to turn off a scientific instrument in each Voyager.
“The Voyager have been stars of deep space since its launch and we want it to continue as possible,” says Suzanne Dodd, director of the Voyager project in the JPL.
The two ships depend on a radioisotope energy system that generates electricity from the heat of decomposition plutonium. Both lose about 4 watts of energy every year. The only possibility of continuing to work successively its ten scientific instruments, identical for each ship.
The instruments intended to collect data during the planetary flycards were turned off after the ships completed their exploration of the gaseous giants of the solar system. Those who remained on were those that the scientific team considered important to study the helosphere, a solar wind protective bubble and magnetic fields created by the sun, and the interstellar space, the region outside the Helosphere.
The Voyager 1 reached the edge of the Helosphere and at the beginning of the interstellar space in 2012; The Voyager 2 reached that last border in 2018. No other spacecraft made by humanity has operated in the interstellar space. Now, Voyager 1 is located more than 25,000 million kilometers away, while Voyager 2 has traveled more than 21,000 million kilometers. In fact, more than 23 hours are needed for a radio signal to reach the furthest probe, and 19 and a half hours to the other.
The cosmic ray subsystem that went out in the Voyager 1 last week is a set of three telescopes designed to study cosmic rays, including the protons of the galaxy and the sun, measuring its energy and flow. The data of these telescopes helped the Voyager scientific team to determine when and where Voyager 1 left the helosphere. The instrument of low -energy loaded particles of the Voyager 2, whose deactivation is scheduled by the end of this month, measures the different ions, electrons and cosmic rays that originate in our solar system and our galaxy.
Last October, also to conserve energy, NASA turned off the scientific instrument of plasma of Voyager 2, which measures the amount of plasma (electrically loaded atoms) and the direction in which it flows. The Voyager 1 plasma instrument had been extinguished for years due to poor performance.
“The Voyager probes have far exceeded their original mission to study the outer planets,” said Patrick Koehn, a scientist at the Voyager program at NASA’s headquarters in Washington. “Each additional data bit that we have collected since then is not only a valuable scientific contribution for heliophysics, but also a testimony of exemplary engineering that has been used in Los Voyager, which began almost 50 years ago and continues until today.”
Until the 2030s
Mission engineers have taken measures to avoid turning off scientific instruments during as long as possible, since the data collected by probes are unique. With these two new instruments off, the ships should have enough energy to work for approximately one year before the equipment has to turn off another instrument in both spacecraft.
Meanwhile, Voyager 1 will continue to use its magnetometer and its plasma wave subsystem. The instrument of low -energy loaded particles of the spacecraft will continue to function the rest of 2025, but will turn off next year. For its part, Voyager 2 will continue to use its magnetic field instruments and plasma waves in the near future. It is expected that your cosmic rays subsystem will turn off in 2026.
With the implementation of this energy conservation plan, engineers believe that the two probes could have enough electricity to continue operating with at least one scientific instrument until the 2030s. But they are also aware that Voyager have been sailing in deep space for 47 years and that unforeseen challenges could shorten that term.
“Every minute of each day, the Voyager explore a region to which no spacecraft has arrived before,” said Linda Spilker, scientist of the Voyager project in the JPL. «That also means that every day it could be the last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation. Therefore, we are doing everything possible to ensure that Voyager 1 and 2 continue their way for as long as possible ».
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