Almost 50 years after they were first launched, Voyager 1 and 2 still travel through the interstellar space – although for many years they have encountered some failures. Now NASA announced that the spacecraft Twin Voyager loss of some of their features In an attempt to extend their life expectancy in the face of a decreasing power source.
On February 25, in the NASA reactive movement laboratory (JPL), the Cosmic Ray Voyager 1 1 1 1 1 1 subsystem expert, and on March 25, it will turn off the Voyager 2 low energy device charged with particles.
“Since the launch of Voyages have been Space Rock Stars, and we want it to be as long as possible,” said Suzanna Dodd, the Voyager project manager in JPL. “But the electric power works low. If we do not turn off the tool on each Voyager now, they probably will have only a few months of the authorities before we have to announce the end of the mission. ”
Each probe will continue to control three scientific tools, but store seven more tools that turned off over time. Only in October last year, NASA closed the Voyager 2 tool. Nevertheless, both spaceships survived recent problems. In June last year, Voyager 1 finally begins to work correctly again, following Seven months of technical problemsIncluding unreadable data. He had a similar problem Two years earlierField in 2023, Voyager 2 Within two weeks, he began to darken after technical assistance was required three years earlier.
NASA still gives great value in Voyager sensors. “Every minute of each day, travelers explore the region where no spaceship has arrived before,” said Linda Spilker, a scientist of the Voyager project in JPL. “It also means that every day it can be our last. But this day can also bring another interstellar revelation. Thus, we take out all the stops, making everything possible so that Voyages 1 and 2 continue their mark for the maximum time. ” Maybe at least until they reached 50 years old in 2027?
NASA’s slightly more cynical look “pulls out all the stops” in order to save them, we will certainly love the probes to be functional for their 50th anniversary in 2027, which seems high, despite all the efforts of the agency.