this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating (science.nasa.gov)
submitted 3 hours ago by vogi@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Engineers are confident that shutting down the LECP will give Voyager 1 about a year of breathing room. They are using the time to finalize a more ambitious energy-saving fix for both Voyagers they call “the Big Bang,” which is designed to further extend Voyager operations. The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once — hence the nickname — turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 38 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

RTGs are subject to the issue of half-life - this is a consequence of that type of power source. Though, let’s be honest: we do not have any other sort of power generation technology that would be viable for literal decades on an interstellar space probe. And we definitely didn’t have a better alternative when they were launched.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 points 4 minutes ago

Just use two of them!

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

For roughly three milliseconds I thought to myself they shoulda used solar panels instead.

"Oh, wait...."

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 1 points 4 minutes ago

Well they could power a lamp that shines on the solar panels.