# NASA begins to powerdown Voyagers. (mission will continue, but with less instruments) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640 "2022-06-22T16:09:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/41 "2024-06-15T18:56:20Z")
Annoying delays can happen even in terrestrial communication. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fHeF1c2-2wE/maxresdefault.jpg "Satellite Delay - Saturday Night Live") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHeF1c2-2wE) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/42 "2024-06-15T18:58:38Z")
I’ve sat in my cubicle on a conference call and heard the person in the next cubicle on the same call, with an annoying gap between hearing their voice in person and on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/43 "2024-09-12T19:30:35Z")
> **[Voyager 1 Team Accomplishes Tricky Thruster Swap - NASA Science](https://science.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-program/voyager-1/voyager-1-team-accomplishes-tricky-thruster-swap/)** > > The spacecraft uses its thrusters to stay pointed at Earth, but after 47 years in space some of the fuel tubes have become clogged. Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters,... 47 years old and still working some! ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/44 "2025-03-06T16:59:51Z")
> The Voyagers’ radioisotope power system loses around 4 watts each year, so to preserve power, [NASA engineers have been shutting down](https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2025/03/05/nasa-turns-off-2-voyager-science-instruments-to-extend-mission/) some of the science instruments carried by each probe. Voyager 1’s cosmic ray subsystem experiment was turned off on February 25th. When the low-energy charged particle instrument aboard Voyager 2 is shut down on March 24th, both spacecraft will have three out of the ten identical science instruments they launched with remaining operational. > > “Electrical power is running low,” said Voyager project manager, Suzanne Dodd. “If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission. The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible.” > **[NASA is making sacrifices to keep the Voyager mission alive](https://www.theverge.com/news/625182/nasa-voyager-mission-instruments-shut-down-power)** > > To infinity, and beyond 2030. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/45 "2025-03-06T22:39:15Z")
Deep Space Rock Stars would make a good band name. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/46 "2025-03-06T23:00:00Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible. They certainly were. An impressive achievement in space exploration that will long be legendary. The Voyagers gave us an amazing first close look at the planets of our solar system, thanks to a serendipitous alignment of planetary orbits and technological capability. It’s truly fitting that they should also be the first to achieve interstellar travel, possibly being discovered by some distant future civilization after we’re long gone. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/47 "2025-03-06T23:25:41Z")
I like to imagine being one of the people who, in some small way, contributed to building the Voyager craft. Say the guy who made some small subassembly. That tiny little bit of work, along with the rest of the Voyager craft, might survive everything else built by mankind. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/48 "2025-03-06T23:26:22Z")
The last thing to be turned off, of course, will be the radios that are sending the rest of the data home. And it’s worth noting that, even with just the radios and no other instruments operating, there’s still a lot of good science that can be done there. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/49 "2025-03-06T23:33:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I like to imagine being one of the people who, in some small way, contributed to building the Voyager craft. Say the guy who made some small subassembly. That tiny little bit of work, along with the rest of the Voyager craft, might survive everything else built by mankind. My dad was one of the lead engineers on the Surveyor program. They predate Voyager and should be on the Moon forever. Of course they haven’t sent back any data in a while. > **[Surveyor program](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_program)** > > The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just ov... ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/50 "2025-03-06T23:36:40Z")
Well, until the Sun goes supernova. Voyager may escape that event. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/51 "2025-03-06T23:37:55Z")
True enough. Twenty years after that Voyager takes the crown ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/52 "2025-03-06T23:45:53Z")
There are a few missions that have left the Solar System. Also Pioneers 10 and 11 and New Horizons, off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/53 "2025-03-07T00:08:35Z")
So everyone associated with those missions might have their work survive everything else made by mankind. In the long run, the works of powerful people will long be forgotten while these spacecraft survive. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/54 "2025-03-07T00:10:45Z")
Nitpick: the Sun will never go supernova. It’s too small for a core collapse event and there’s no companion star for an accretion-driven event. It will however eventually balloon up into a red giant which will just possibly consume the Earth and Moon, although probably will just miss becoming large enough to do even that. And everyone knows that Voyager’s ultimate fate is to lose a few letters of its name and return to Earth, looking for the Creator. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/55 "2025-03-07T01:30:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There are a few missions that have left the Solar System. Also Pioneers 10 and 11 and New Horizons, off the top of my head. One more: > **[Voyager 1 has left the Solar System. Will we ever overtake it?](https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/voyager-1-solar-system/)** > > In all of human history, only 5 spacecraft had the right trajectory to exit the Solar System. Will they ever catch Voyager 1? > [@](#): > > The Ulysses spacecraft, launched in 1990, was designed to orbit the Sun and study it at all latitudes, from a variety of near-and-far distances. A 2098 gravitational encounter with Jupiter is coming, which will impart a gravitational kick sufficient to send Ulysses out of the Solar System. He makes it sound certain that this encounter will give it the necessary kick. I don’t think it’s actually that certain, but more likely just probable. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/56 "2025-03-07T12:18:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The last thing to be turned off, of course, will be the radios that are sending the rest of the data home. Will they turn them off, or just keep trying to use them until they fail? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/57 "2025-03-11T16:18:41Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > And everyone knows that Voyager’s ultimate fate is to lose a few letters of its name and return to Earth, looking for the Creator. yeah, but there’s something that bothers me about that scene, from a scientific point of view.[https://youtu.be/gxAaVqdz\_Vk?t=86](https://youtu.be/gxAaVqdz_Vk?t=86) What is covering up the letters of V-ger? It looks like soot from the back of a diesel truck. Can one you science-y Dopers please 'xplain to me how much diesel soot there is in space? And why it sticks only to the middle three letters ? And why is Voyager’s name inscribed on a 2-foot long brass plaque on the outside, anyway?–that much brass weighs several pounds, hardly a useful part of the limited payload. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/58 "2025-03-11T16:43:36Z")
Must have been a first stage from a Saturn V rocket made it into space and was still burning some RP-1 fuel. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/59 "2025-03-11T16:55:52Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Must have been a first stage from a Saturn V rocket made it into space and was still burning some RP-1 fuel. jeezzz…this place depresses me! (well, actually it frikin’ impresses the hell outa me.) I thought I was making a clever, snarky comment-- because a smart guy like me knows for sure that there ain’t no soot in space. And then I find out how dumb I am… Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/60 "2025-03-11T17:26:28Z")
Soot is mostly long chain carbon-heavy molecules. Probably a lot of those in interstellar dust. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640.md?page=4)