NASA’s Voyager 1 is about to reach a historic one-light-day milestone
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is nearing a historic distance milestone while engineers work to extend its operational life amid declining power. Recent energy conservation efforts, including a complex device replacement, have successfully kept the aging probe functional in interstellar space.
Why it matters
Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object, and its continued operation provides unique, irreplaceable data about the interstellar medium.
Nearly 50 years after leaving Earth, NASA's Voyager 1 is approaching an extraordinary milestone that will highlight just how far humanity's most distant spacecraft has traveled. But keeping the aging explorer operational has become an increasingly difficult challenge as its power supply slowly fades.
NASA engineers recently achieved two important developments in their effort to extend the mission. In September, they completed a complex energy conservation project designed to preserve the spacecraft's remaining scientific capabilities. Then, on October 20, Voyager 1 unexpectedly resumed communication with Earth after a mysterious 48-hour interruption.
NASA Engineers Find a Clever Way to Save Power
In early September, the Voyager team successfully replaced three devices aboard Voyager 1 with alternatives that consume less electricity. The carefully coordinated operation, nicknamed the "Big Bang," took months to prepare and was completed approximately six weeks after engineers carried out an identical procedure on Voyager 2 .
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