NASA is turning off an important instrument on the Voyager 2 spacecraft

NASA's Voyager 2 space probe has been flying through space for 47 years and providing increasingly valuable data. Now NASA has to say goodbye to the instrument.

PASADENA – NASA has turned off the plasma science instrument on board the Voyager 2 spacecraft in order to obtain enough power to operate the remaining instruments. Voyager 2 was launched into space in 1977 to explore the solar system with its twin probes, Voyager 1. Space probes are powered by the decay of plutonium and lose about four watts of power per year. That's why many tools have actually been retired in recent years.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft needs to provide energy in space

Voyager 2 is located about 20.5 billion kilometers from Earth and has long since left the heliosphere – the region affected by our sun. In addition to Voyager 2, only its sister probe, Voyager 1, has so far traveled from Earth and collected data in the far part of space. This fact makes NASA's missions very valuable – even though it can only use some of its instruments to save energy.

“The scientific data that Voyager sends back to Earth become increasingly valuable the farther it gets from the sun,” Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker explained last year. For as long as possible.

Each of NASA's twin Voyager probes can use four instruments

Voyager 2 still uses four of its original 10 instruments to examine the region outside the heliosphere, and its sister can also use only four instruments. as NASA reportsThe spacecraft still has enough power to fly into the 2030s with at least one working scientific instrument. To achieve this, strategic decisions had to be made in the past about which tools could be neutralized.

Voyager 2's recently decommissioned plasma science instrument measures the amount of electrically charged atoms (plasma) and the direction in which the plasma moves. However, in recent years, only limited data has been collected because the plasma flows in a different direction than the spacecraft's flight direction, which is why the decision was made to turn it off. The Plasma Science Instrument, which was decommissioned aboard Voyager 2 on September 26, 2024, has not been operating on the Voyager 1 dual probe since 1980, and was decommissioned in 2007 to conserve power.

NASA turns off the instrument on the Voyager 2 space probe – and it keeps working

Turning off any instrument aboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft isn't as easy as it seems. First, there is the spacecraft's large distance from Earth, which means it takes about 19 hours for the signal to reach Voyager 2. Another 19 hours are needed to get a response from the spacecraft. The NASA team then had to ensure that the old space capsule would continue to operate as planned, and that stopping it would not have any negative effects on Voyager 2.

Recently, Voyager 1 has caused problems: the space probe no longer communicates with Earth and no longer carries out commands. The space probe was not rescued until after months of attempts. Voyager 2 also caused problems, but contact was restored through an “interstellar scream.” (unpaid bill)