Engineers shut down one science instrument on Voyager-2 to conserve power
In order to keep the spacecraft functioning as its nuclear power source dwindles, engineers have now shut down one of Voyager-2’s operating science instruments in order to keep four instruments operating.
Mission engineers at NASA have turned off the plasma science instrument aboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft due to the probe’s gradually shrinking electrical power supply.
Traveling more than 12.8 billion miles (20.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, the spacecraft continues to use four science instruments to study the region outside our heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. The probe has enough power to continue exploring this region with at least one operational science instrument into the 2030s. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted sentence is the first time I have ever seen any prediction for the life of Voyager-2 to extend past 2030. Previously, project engineers have consistently stated that the power would run down sometime around 2026. This extension suggests the decision has been made to do whatever can be done to keep the spacecraft functioning for as long as possible, not so much to do science but to test the limits of its engineering. To do so, they will step-by-step shut down instruments rather than keep them all going.
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In order to keep the spacecraft functioning as its nuclear power source dwindles, engineers have now shut down one of Voyager-2’s operating science instruments in order to keep four instruments operating.
Mission engineers at NASA have turned off the plasma science instrument aboard the Voyager 2 spacecraft due to the probe’s gradually shrinking electrical power supply.
Traveling more than 12.8 billion miles (20.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, the spacecraft continues to use four science instruments to study the region outside our heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. The probe has enough power to continue exploring this region with at least one operational science instrument into the 2030s. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted sentence is the first time I have ever seen any prediction for the life of Voyager-2 to extend past 2030. Previously, project engineers have consistently stated that the power would run down sometime around 2026. This extension suggests the decision has been made to do whatever can be done to keep the spacecraft functioning for as long as possible, not so much to do science but to test the limits of its engineering. To do so, they will step-by-step shut down instruments rather than keep them all going.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
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As the Voyagers traverse the outer boundaries of the Solar system, it makes sense to keep scientific data coming as long as possible in order to cover areas as far out as possible.
Thus, I am puzzled that the extension is deemed to be “… not so much to do science but to test the limits of its engineering.”
The scientific value of probing further outward seems indisputable, but I am less convinced of the value of studying the engineering limits of 47-year-old technology. Can you clarify your thinking?
Ray Van Dune: What I know is that before they were going to keep as many science instruments functioning for as long as possible, but that would cause power to run out by c2026. Now it appears they are going to shut down those instruments one-by-one so that they can extend the spacecraft life.
To me, this means they have shifted priority from science to engineering. Whether that shift makes sense however is another question — one that you quite correctly raise.
Maybe I’m the confused one, but given Voyager‘s power source, which converts radioactive decay by-products into electricity, you’d expect the power available to constantly decline. For instance, if your radioactive material has a half-life of ten years, after ten years it produces half as much power, and it’s down to a quarter the power after twenty.
Ancient battery tech or no, you’re mostly in a use-it-or-lose-it situation, because the radioactive material decays whether or not you’re using the electricity. Just as importantly, you can’t use up the radioactives faster to generate more electricity but a shorter lifespan.
I’d suggest that it’s more that they have a finer understanding of the decreasing, useful output of the power source than they once did.
With the decay rate of Pu-238 in the RTGs, it is down to 225 watts.
It can be testing the limits of Earth-bound engineering. A maximum of 225 watts from 20.5 billion km away can’t be much of a signal.