Artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. After the Voyager 1 and its replica Voyager 2 launched in 1977, their power sources are slowly dying. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
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NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. After the Voyager 1 and its replica Voyager 2 launched in 1977, their power sources are slowly dying.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, which has been probing the outer bounds of the solar system for over 45 years, is running out of power. But a new plan aims to keep its interstellar mission alive for at least three more years.
The Voyager 2, first launched in 1977, has been helping scientists investigate faraway planets and understand how the heliosphere — the sun's outermost atmospheric bubble-like layer that traps particles and magnetic fields — protects Earth from its volatile interstellar environment.
With Voyager 2's power supply dwindling, NASA was about to shut down one of its five science instruments onboard the spacecraft. To keep it going, engineers had already sacrificed heaters and other nonessential parts that drained power. But engineers have now found a way to tap reserve power from a safety mechanism that regulates the spacecraft's voltage.
"The move will enable the mission to postpone shutting down a science instrument until 2026, rather than this year," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said this past week.
Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1 (launched the same year), are the only spacecraft to have ventured beyond the heliosphere.
Ed Stone, who was the chief scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before he retired last year, has spent over half his life dedicated to the Voyager program. He oversaw the spacecrafts churn out one discovery after another as they explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
"What it revealed was how complex and dynamic the solar system really is. Before Voyager, the only known active volcanoes were here on Earth," Stone told NPR in 2017. "Then we flew by Jupiter's moon, Io, and it has 10 times the volcanic activity of earth. Before Voyager, the only known oceans in the solar system were here on Earth. Then we flew by another moon of Jupiter, Europa, which it turns out has a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust."
Voyager 2 is 12.3 billion miles away from Earth and counting. Voyager 1, also facing an expiration date as it also loses power, is 14.7 billion miles away.
"The science data that the Voyagers are returning gets more valuable the farther away from the Sun they go, so we are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible," Linda Spilker, the Voyager program's project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab, said in a statement.
NASA, meanwhile, has been working to make sure the Voyagers' legacy doesn't end with a slow fizzle, with officials weighing expensive and complex proposals from several groups for a new, long-term probe.
FAQs
To help keep those instruments operating despite a diminishing power supply, the aging spacecraft has begun using a small reservoir of backup power set aside as part of an onboard safety mechanism. The move will enable the mission to postpone shutting down a science instrument until 2026, rather than this year.
How does Voyager 2 keep going? ›
Voyager 2 is equipped with three multihundred-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MHW RTGs). Each RTG includes 24 pressed plutonium oxide spheres. At launch, each RTG provided enough heat to generate approximately 157 W of electrical power.
How much longer will Voyager 2 last? ›
The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.
Why did NASA lose contact with Voyager 2? ›
NASA said Friday that it lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after "a series of planned commands" inadvertently caused the craft to turn its antenna 2 degrees away from the direction of its home planet.
What information does Voyager 2 send back? ›
Now over 12 billion miles away, Voyager 2 is still beaming back unprecedented information about its far-off environs, where only Voyager 1 has ventured before. It's returning data about the radiation in interstellar space and how far the sun's protective bubble of energy and particles extends into the cosmos.
Can Voyager 2 come back? ›
They've been heading out of our solar system ever since. In 2012, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space. Then, in 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 had entered interstellar space, too. They are both headed outward, never to return to Earth.
Will Voyager 2 slow down? ›
The two Voyagers are drifting through the vacuum of space, having been accelerated to high speed by a big rocket and a few gravity assist maneuvers. Today, there is nothing to slow them down but impacts with interstellar dust and radiation and the weak and ever-weakening pull of the sun's gravity.
How long until Voyager 1 dies? ›
Voyager 1's extended mission is expected to continue to return science data until at least 2025. Its radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) may supply enough electric power to return engineering data until 2036.
Will Voyager 2 leave the Milky Way? ›
In about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years (9.7 trillion miles) from the star Ross 248 and in about 296,000 years, it will pass 4.3 light-years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way.
What went wrong with Voyager 2? ›
When Suzanne Dodd's team transmitted a routine command to Voyager 2 on July 21, the unthinkable happened: They accidentally sent the wrong version, which pointed the interstellar probe's antenna slightly away from Earth. When they next expected to receive data, they heard nothing at all.
Voyager 1 is still alive out there, barreling into the cosmos more than 15 billion miles away. However, a computer problem has kept the mission's loyal support team in Southern California from knowing much more about the status of one of NASA's longest-lived spacecraft.
Will Voyager 1 outlive Earth? ›
While humans will undoubtedly outlive the Voyagers' systems, the probes' final mission, to preserve a record of Earth, may outlive humanity.
Who lost contact with Voyager 2? ›
NASA lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after it erroneously sent a series of commands that caused its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth.
What did Voyager 2 find out? ›
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system's giant planets at close range. Voyager 2 discovered a 14th moon at Jupiter. Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly past Uranus. At Uranus, Voyager 2 discovered 10 new moons and two new rings.
How has Voyager 1 not hit anything? ›
Currently, Voyager 1 is located 23 billion kilometres from Earth, while Voyager 2 has made it to a distance of 19 billion kilometres. Since both have already passed by the planets in our solar system, they aren't expected to crash into a planet or star for some time.
Did Voyager 1 leave the Milky Way? ›
In order to leave the milky way voyager 1 would have to attain a velocity of approximately 1000 km/s and unless this happens it's going to orbit around the centre of the milky way galaxy. However, voyager 1 left our solar system on August 25, 2012 and is now traveling towards the core of our galaxy.
How does Voyager travel without fuel? ›
The Voyagers travel too far from the Sun to use solar panels; instead, they were equipped with power sources called radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs).
What happens when a Voyager runs out of fuel? ›
When the fuel runs out and the systems turn off, the probes will wander space indefinitely until - and if - they are found.
Does Voyager 2 still send pictures? ›
Though the probes are no longer sending pictures, they haven't stopped sending crucial information about space.
What made Voyager 2 so successful? ›
Voyager 2 took advantage of Uranus' gravity to send it on to its last planetary destination, Neptune. The spacecraft conducted the first close-up observations of the eighth planet between June 5 and Oct. 2, 1989, making its flyby just 3,408 miles above its north pole on Aug.
