NASA's Voyager probes, launched in 1977, are experiencing power limitations after nearly five decades in space. To prolong their missions, officials announced the deactivation of specific instruments on both spacecraft. Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem has already been turned off, with Voyager 2's low-energy charged particle instrument set to follow. This conservation effort aims to keep the probes operational as they continue studying the interstellar medium, despite being billions of miles from Earth and navigating diminishing power resources.
The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible, said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). But electrical power is running low. If we don't turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission.
NASA has announced they will turn off one additional instrument on each spacecraft to conserve energy, with power running low on both Voyager probes.
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