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It's been almost 42 years since NASA sent its two Voyager satellites into record missions, and the two decades-old robots are still alive. Voyager 1 and 2 are respectively 13.5 billion and 11.1 billion kilometers from Earth, and NASA engineers are responsible for ensuring that they remain operational for as long as possible.
As the agency reveals in a new update, the mission leaders recently decided to shut down one of the Voyager 2 heaters, designed to keep its cosmic ray subsystem (CRS) instrument at a cool temperature. comfortable. This was done to save energy, but the CRS itself still works miraculously, although it is well below the temperatures at which it was tested more than forty years ago.
As the two Voyager spaceships venture deeper into space than any man-made object before them, NASA faces some unfortunate realities. The space is cold, and the more the Voyager twins stand between them and the Sun, the colder it is. After nearly 42 years, both machines now support freezing temperatures well below the presumed limits of their instruments.
The built-in heaters protect some tools from the cold, but the mission team has slowly extinguished some of these heaters and several Voyager instruments in the name of conserving energy. The fact that Voyager 2's cosmic ray instrument is still working even though it is not heated is a pleasant surprise for Voyager's science team.
"It's amazing that Voyagers' instruments have proven so robust," said Suzanne Dodd, Project Manager Voyager in a statement. "We are proud that they have stood the test of time. The long life of the spacecraft means we are confronted with scenarios we never imagined. We will continue to explore all options available to enable travelers to make the best science possible. "
Even with decreasing power reserves and instrument temperatures as low as 7 ° C, the Voyager twins should continue to shed light on the secrets of the cosmos for many more years before finally remaining silent.
Image Source: NASA / JPL
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