Voyager 2 Stretches Interstellar Lifespan With Grounded Power Swap
TL;DR Summary
NASA’s Voyager 2 gained at least a year of extra operational life not by touching the spacecraft, but via a coordinated ground-based power swap called the “Big Bang” that swaps in lower-power components while keeping critical heaters and instruments online. With a roughly 39-hour command cycle (about 19.5 hours to reach the probe and the same back), engineers plan far in advance, since there’s no live troubleshooting. The change reduces power demand from aging RTGs and preserves science measurements from three active instruments in interstellar space; Voyager 1 will receive a similar upgrade in the coming months.
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- NASA figured out how to keep its 48-year-old Voyager 2 probe running for yet another year Space
- NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2’s Science Mission NASA Science (.gov)
- NASA gives Voyager 2 a new lease on life nearly 48 years after launch scrippsnews.com
- How NASA is powering the Voyager 2 probe from a galaxy away Mashable
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