How NASA is powering the Voyager 2 probe from a galaxy away - Mashable
NASA engineers have implemented a power-saving strategy to keep the aging Voyager 2 probe operational in interstellar space. By shutting down non-essential systems, the team expects to extend the mission's life by at least one year.
Why it matters
Voyager 2 is a historic mission providing unique data from outside our solar system, representing a significant achievement in long-term space exploration.
NASA engineers have found still more power inside Voyager 2's aging systems, keeping the veteran spacecraft alive as it drifts through space at 34,000 mph.Voyager 2 is now completely immersed in interstellar space, the region beyond the influence of the sun and its planets. But after 49 years in flight, its reserves have faded so much that engineers must decide, instrument by instrument, what stays on and what shuts down.It started off with 10 instruments. Only three - the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, Magnetometer, and Plasma Wave Subsystem - are still on. Those remaining sensors measure high‑energy particles, the local magnetic field, and ripples in charged gas around the spacecraft to reveal what interstellar space is like.To avoid having to sacrifice yet another instrument this year, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory came up with a new idea.
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