(NASA/JPL https://bit.ly/2IYiBLo)
The Voyager 2 probe team was able to delay by three years the shutdown of the remaining scientific instruments exploring the interstellar medium.
Turning off the probe protection system from voltage surges will help save electricity.
Voyager 2 was launched into space 45 years and 8 months ago and is now at a distance of 132.99 astronomical units from Earth.
This makes Voyager 2 the second most distant man-made object from our planet (Voyager 1 is considered the first).
Both vehicles have left the heliosphere, but will not leave the solar system for a long time.
Both Voyagers are powered by several radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are constantly declining in power.
However, scientists hope that communication with the probes can be maintained until 2030.
To compensate for the loss of energy, the Voyagers have already turned off the heaters and half of the scientific instruments, as well as some unimportant systems.
Voyager 2 was previously scheduled to have one of the five remaining working scientific instruments disabled this year.
Voyager 1 currently uses four instruments, so a similar procedure was planned for 2024.
However, the probe team decided to turn off one of the systems of the device.
The intention is not to sacrifice the received scientific data on the properties of plasma, charged particles and magnetic fields of the interstellar medium.
I’m talking about protection against voltage surges in the Voyager 2 electrical system, which includes a regulator and a backup circuit.
This decision was made due to the stability of the electrical systems of both probes over a long period of time.
This will allow it to start turning off the scientific instruments of the probe only in 2026.
Sources:
- NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-voyager-will-do-more-science-with-new-power-strategy
- ScienceAlert: https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-hacks-voyager-2-to-keep-the-45-year-old-probe-studying-interstellar-space
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