NASA Shuts Down Voyager 1 Instrument as Its Life Force Fades
Yahoo • • general
Key Points:
- NASA has shut down Voyager 1's Low-energy Charge Particles experiment (LECP) sensor to conserve power, aiming to extend the spacecraft's operational life by at least another year.
- Voyager 1's power source, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, is losing power at about four watts per year, leading to difficult decisions about which instruments to deactivate.
- The LECP, active since 1977, has provided valuable data on low-energy particles from outside the solar system, but was turned off after a sudden power drop during a routine maneuver raised concerns about automatic shutdowns.
- Two instruments remain active on Voyager 1: one measuring plasma waves and another measuring magnetic fields, while the cosmic ray subsystem was shut down earlier in February 2025.
- NASA plans a more extensive power-saving strategy called “the Big Bang,” involving simultaneous shutdowns and replacements with lower-power devices, to be tested first on Voyager 2 before implementation on Voyager 1.
