Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Humanity’s oldest spacecraft still in operation, the Voyager 1 and 2, are now flying about their business at over 11 billion miles (18 billion km) away from Earth. As you might guess, there are no refueling or power stations in deep space, and that is becoming a problem.
Launched nearly half a century ago, in 1977, the two spacecraft are now in interstellar space, well beyond the Sun’s heliosphere. With dwindling power supplies, it’s only a matter of time before data coming back from the two stops.
If the data stream shuts down, the Voyagers will continue on their mission to share the human story to the stars. But since it will take around 30,000 years for them to actually exit the solar system through the Oort Cloud, NASA believes getting data from places never visited before is crucial.
That’s why the agency is now looking at ways to extend the life of the Voyagers by deciding which system can be shut down to conserve power, and which must be kept on.
The ships's systems are powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators that create heat through the natural decay of plutonium-238. That heat is then converted to electrical power.
NASA says that each year the generators produce 4 fewer watts of electrical power, meaning by now the output has dropped by about 40 percent.
Engineers are now working on ways to make better use of the remaining power, but also to keep other parts of the machines from falling apart. They are hoping for at least a few more years worth of data before no signal is received.
"Both Voyager probes are exploring regions never before visited, so every day is a day of discovery," said in a statement Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone.
"Voyager is going to keep surprising us with new insights about deep space."
If the data stream shuts down, the Voyagers will continue on their mission to share the human story to the stars. But since it will take around 30,000 years for them to actually exit the solar system through the Oort Cloud, NASA believes getting data from places never visited before is crucial.
That’s why the agency is now looking at ways to extend the life of the Voyagers by deciding which system can be shut down to conserve power, and which must be kept on.
The ships's systems are powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators that create heat through the natural decay of plutonium-238. That heat is then converted to electrical power.
NASA says that each year the generators produce 4 fewer watts of electrical power, meaning by now the output has dropped by about 40 percent.
Engineers are now working on ways to make better use of the remaining power, but also to keep other parts of the machines from falling apart. They are hoping for at least a few more years worth of data before no signal is received.
"Both Voyager probes are exploring regions never before visited, so every day is a day of discovery," said in a statement Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone.
"Voyager is going to keep surprising us with new insights about deep space."
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