Voyager 2 Extends Mission Life With a Bold 'Big Bang' Power Shuffle
TL;DR
NASA's Voyager 2 gained about two extra years of life by a bold, 'Big Bang' power-and-thermal reconfiguration that flips multiple subsystems on at once to conserve power while keeping heaters warm. After Earth tests and telemetry validation, the permanent change was deployed on July 9; the next instrument shutdown (Cosmic Ray System) has been postponed to after Voyager 2's 50th anniversary in 2027 and into 2028. Margins are tight and subject to revision, and engineers may consider reactivating some instruments if funding allows; a similar update could be explored for Voyager 1.
- How Voyager engineers found two more years in a 50-year-old power budget The Register
- NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2’s Science Mission science.nasa.gov
- How NASA is powering the Voyager 2 probe from a galaxy away Mashable
- NASA figured out how to keep its 48-year-old Voyager 2 probe running for yet another year Space
- ‘Big Bang’ fix boosts Voyager 2’s mission in interstellar space CNN
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