NASA engineers have found still more power inside Voyager 2's aging systems, keeping the veteran spacecraft alive as it drifts through space at 34,000 mph.Voyager 2 is now completely immersed in interstellar space, the region beyond the influence of the sun and its planets. But after 49 years in flight, its reserves have faded so much that engineers must decide, instrument by instrument, what stays on and what shuts down.It started off with 10 instruments. Only three — the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, Magnetometer, and Plasma Wave Subsystem — are still on. Those remaining sensors measure high‑energy particles, the local magnetic field, and ripples in charged gas around the spacecraft to reveal what interstellar space is like.
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To avoid having to sacrifice yet another instrument this year, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory came up with a new idea. Nicknamed the "Big Bang," the plan involved turning off certain powered devices, swapping in lower‑power alternatives, and balancing the system so the spacecraft stays warm enough to operate. Those savings should keep the trio of instruments working for at least one extra year, according to the agency.
Launched in 1977 to survey the outer planets, Voyager 2 long ago outlasted its original five‑year plan and now ranks among humanity's most distant missions at about 13.3 billion miles from Earth. Between Voyager 2 and its farther twin, Voyager 1, the spacecraft have explored four planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus — 48 moons, and a host of planetary magnetic fields and rings.
