The NASA switches 2 Voyager science instruments to extend the mission

The most distant objects will be able to take up your scientific collection even further thanks to these energy -supplied measures.

The mission engineers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California of NASA switched off the Cosmic Ray Subsystem experiment on board Voyager 1 on February 25 and will switch off the energy-rich particle instrument from Voyager 2 on March 24. Three scientific instruments continue to be operated on every spaceship. The movements are part of a continuous effort to manage the gradually decreasing power supply of the Twin probes.

The Voyager 1 and 2 introduced in 1977 rely on a radioisotope power supply system that generates electricity from the heat of the dilapidated plutonium. Both lose about 4 watts of electricity every year.

“The Voyager has been since the start of Deep Space Rockstars, and we want to keep it as long as possible for as long as possible,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager of Voyager at JPL. “But the electrical performance is not running enough. If we do not turn off an instrument for every voyager now, you would probably only have a few months off before we would have to declare the end of the mission. “

The two space vehicles carry identical sentences from 10 science instruments. Some of the instruments that were geared towards collecting data during planetary flybies were switched off after both spaceships had completed the research of the gas giants of the solar system.

The instruments that were far beyond the last planetary flies were those who were considered important for the examination of the heliocha of the solar system, a protective bladder made of sun wind and magnetic fields that were generated by the sun, and interstellar areas, the region outside the heliospage. Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere in 2012 and the beginning of the interstellar area. Voyager 2 reached the border in 2018. No other spaceship manufactured by humans has operated in the interstellar area.

In October in October to save energy, the project switched off the plasma science instrument from Voyager 2, which measures the amount of plasma – electrically charged atoms – and the direction it flows. The instrument had only collected limited data in recent years because it is located in comparison to the direction in which plasma flows in the interstellar room. The plasma science instrument of Voyager 1 had been eliminated years ago due to a new performance.

The cosmic radiation subsystem, which was closed on Voyager 1 last week, is a suite of three telescopes with which cosmic rays, including protons from the galaxy and the sun, have been examined by measuring their energy and river. Data from these telescopes helped the Voyager science team when and where Voyager 1 left the heliosphere.

Planned for deactivation in the course of this month, Voyager 2 measures the various ions, electrons and cosmic rays that come from our solar system and our galaxy. The instrument consists of two subsystems: the low-energy particle telescope for wider energy measurements and the magnetospheric particle analyzer with low energy for more focused magnetospheric examinations.

Both systems use a rotating platform so that the field of vision is 360 degrees, and the platform is powered by a stepper motor that offers a pulse of 15.7 watts every 192 seconds. The engine was tested for 500,000 steps – enough to ensure continuous operation by meeting the mission with Saturn, which took place in August 1980 for Voyager. By the time of deactivating Voyager 2, the engine will carry out more than 8.5 million steps.

“The Voyager spaceship has far exceeded its original mission to study the external planet,” said Patrick Koehn, program scientist of the Voyager program at NASA headquarters in Washington. “Every additional data that we have collected since then is not only a valuable bonus science for heliophysics, but also proof of exemplary engineering that has come to the Voyager – from almost 50 years and continues to this day.”

Missionary engineers have taken steps to avoid that science instruments are switched off as long as possible, since the scientific data collected by the Twin Voyager probes are clear. After these two instruments have been switched off, the voyagers should have enough electricity for over a year before the team has to switch off another instrument for both spaceships.

In the meantime, Voyager 1 will continue to operate its magnetometer and the plasma waves. The particle instrument, which is low in space vehicles, will operate the rest of 2025, but will be switched off next year.

Voyager 2 will continue to operate its magnetic field and plasma wave instruments for the foreseeable future. His cosmic Ray subsystem is to be switched off in 2026.

With the implementation of this ancillary protection plan, the engineers believe that the two probes could have enough electricity to continue working with at least one scientific instrument in the 2030s. However, they are also aware that Voyager has weathered space for 47 years and that unforeseen challenges could shorten this timeline.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain the most distant human objects that have ever been built. Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles away. Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles from the earth.

Due to this distance, it takes over 23 hours to get a radio signal from Earth to Voyager for 1 and 19½ hours to Voyager 2.

“Every minute of every day, the Voyager explore a region in which no spaceship was going on,” said Linda Spilker, project scientist from Voyager at Jpl. “That also means that every day could be our last. But this day could also bring another interstellar revelation. continue. “

Further information on the Voyager missions of NASA can be found at:
https://science.naSa.gov/mission/voyager

DC Agle / Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-653-6297 / 626-808-2469
[email protected] / [email protected]

2025-032