NASA Shuts Down Voyager 2 Science Instrument After 47 Years to Conserve Energy

NASA has officially shut down a science instrument on its Voyager 2 spacecraft after an impressive 47 years of operation.

Currently located about 20.9 billion kilometers from Earth, Voyager 2 was instructed to turn off its Plasma Science experiment on Sept. 26. This decision was made to conserve energy and extend the spacecraft's operational life into the 2030s.

The Plasma Science experiment played a vital role in observing solar winds-streams of charged particles emitted by the Sun. For nearly five decades, this instrument has provided unique data about the solar environment.

NASA noted that no other human-made spacecraft has operated in interstellar space, which lies beyond the heliosphere, the protective bubble created by the Sun's solar winds, according to Space and Defense.

Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and it now takes over 19 hours for a signal, traveling at the speed of light, to reach the spacecraft. As of now, Voyager 2 is situated in the constellation Pavo.

Voyager 2's Plasma Science Experiment Shutdown

The Plasma Science experiment consisted of four detectors, known as cups, which collected data about ions and electrons released from the Sun. However, the spacecraft's ability to gather information diminished after it crossed the heliosphere in 2018.

This decline was attributed to changes in the spacecraft's orientation relative to the direction of solar winds. NASA's engineers made efforts to keep the Plasma Science instrument running as long as possible due to its invaluable data.

However, after leaving the heliosphere, the performance of three of the four cups significantly decreased, and useful data from the remaining cup was only transmitted every three months. This inconsistency influenced the decision to shut down this particular instrument first.

The twin Voyager spacecraft have been exploring the solar system since the late 1970s. While Voyager 1's Plasma Science instrument stopped functioning in 1980 and was officially turned off in 2007, Voyager 2 still has the plasma wave subsystem active.

This subsystem continues to estimate plasma density, especially during solar eruptions, providing important information about the interstellar medium.

Voyager 2 is powered by decaying plutonium, which results in a gradual loss of power-approximately four watts per year. After completing their exploration of the giant planets in the 1980s, the mission team turned off various instruments that were no longer useful for studying interstellar space.