NASA is powering down two science instruments aboard its long-running Voyager spacecraft to conserve energy. On Wednesday, the space agency announced that an instrument on Voyager 2, which measures charged particles and cosmic rays, will be shut down later this month. Just last week, NASA also turned off an instrument on Voyager 1 that is designed to study cosmic rays.
These energy-saving measures are crucial to prolonging the missions, as explained by Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Launched in 1977, the twin spacecraft are now exploring interstellar space, which lies between the stars. Voyager 1 is known for discovering a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn's moons, while Voyager 2 holds the distinction of being the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.
Despite the shutdowns, each spacecraft still retains three instruments that continue to examine the sun's protective bubble and the vast expanse of space beyond. Voyager 1 has traveled over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth, while Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (20.92 billion kilometers) away.
In other news, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been stuck in space for nearly nine months, are finally getting ready to come back to Earth. They plan to leave later this month, but they'll wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) next week, in March 2025.
Wilmore and Williams were only supposed to be in space for a week after launching in Boeing's Starliner capsule back in June 2023. However, serious problems with the Starliner made it unsafe for them to return home on that spacecraft, forcing it to make an empty trip back.
The astronauts’ journey home was also delayed because the new spacecraft designed to bring their replacements took longer to prepare than expected. Recently, NASA announced that instead of the new vessel, they would use a pre-owned SpaceX capsule, speeding up their return to March 12, 2025.
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Inputs from PTI