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NASA downshifts Voyager 1 instrument to stretch its interstellar voyage

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Source: Space
NASA downshifts Voyager 1 instrument to stretch its interstellar voyage
Photo: Space
TL;DR

NASA engineers shut down the Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) instrument on Voyager 1 on April 17 to conserve dwindling nuclear power, allowing the spacecraft to continue studying the interstellar medium beyond the solar system. Voyager 2’s LECP was silenced earlier in 2025, and only a handful of instruments remain active on both Voyagers. Voyager 1 is currently more than 15 billion miles (about 24 billion kilometers) from Earth, making it the farthest human-made object, and the instrument shutdown is part of a planned retirement sequence to maximize science as the power supply declines.

Topics:sciencespace#heliopause#interstellar-space#lecp#nasa#space#voyager-1
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  1. NASA shuts down Voyager 1 instrument to keep probe exploring interstellar space  Space
  2. NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating  NASA Science (.gov)
  3. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft loses another instrument to save power  Scientific American
  4. Nasa’s interstellar space probe Voyager 1 is losing power  Yahoo
  5. The Little Probe That Could: Why Voyager 1 Matters, and Why NASA Just Switched Part of It Off  NPR

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