# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/61 "2025-03-14T03:04:03Z")
Soot is formed from aggregations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are abundant in space > **[Found in space: Complex carbon-based molecules](https://news.mit.edu/2021/space-complex-carbon-molecules-0318)** > > An MIT-led research team identified two distinctive polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Taurus molecular cloud (TMC-1). The discovery suggests these molecules can form at much lower temperatures than expected, and may lead scientists to... ---
**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:** [April 7, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/62 "2025-04-07T00:26:20Z")
An interview with one of the earliest scientists working on the project: > The Voyagers are powered by heat from decaying plutonium, which is converted into electricity. Each year, the aging spacecraft lose about 4 watts of power. In an effort to conserve power, the [mission team has turned off any systems that were deemed unnecessary](https://gizmodo.com/nasa-shuts-off-voyager-science-instrument-more-power-cuts-ahead-to-keep-both-probes-going-2000572202), including a few science instruments. Each Voyager spacecraft began with 10 instruments, but now have just three each. The two spacecraft now have enough power to operate for another year or so before engineers are forced to turn off two more instruments. > **[Keeping Voyager Alive: NASA’s Project Scientist Faces Painful Choices as the...](https://gizmodo.com/keeping-voyager-alive-nasas-project-scientist-faces-painful-choices-as-the-iconic-mission-nears-its-end-2000580634)** > > "It's kind of like losing a best friend." ---
**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:** [May 16, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/63 "2025-05-16T14:43:29Z")
Some surprising news: > NASA has revived a set of thrusters on the nearly 50-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft after declaring them inoperable over two decades ago… > > JPL [reported](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-1-revives-backup-thrusters-before-command-pause/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1-nasajpl&utm_content=voyager20250514) Wednesday that the maneuver, completed in March, restarted Voyager 1’s primary roll thrusters, which are used to keep the spacecraft aligned with a tracking star. That guide star helps keep its high-gain antenna aimed at Earth, now over 15.6 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away, and far beyond the reach of any telescope. Those primary roll thrusters stopped working in 2004 after a pair of internal heaters lost power. Voyager engineers long believed they were broken and unfixable. The backup roll thrusters in use are now at risk due to residue buildup in their fuel lines, which could cause failure as early as this fall. Without roll thrusters, Voyager 1 would lose its ability to stay properly oriented and eventually drift out of contact. > **[Voyager 1 alive for another day with Hail Mary thruster fix](https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/voyager_1_survives_with_thruster_fix/)** > > : Failure could've triggered a small explosion ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/64 "2025-05-16T15:22:43Z")
Boy, they really built them to last in those days! ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/65 "2025-05-17T00:13:07Z")
I’m really rooting for that little V-Ger! ---
**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:** [November 13, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/66 "2025-11-13T00:16:39Z")
> **[On November 13, 2026, A Human-Made Object Will Reach One Light-Day From The...](https://www.iflscience.com/on-november-13-2026-voyager-will-reach-one-full-light-day-away-from-earth-81432)** > > It took the spacecraft nearly five decades to get there. It takes light a day. I wonder if Voyager 1 will still be communicating back to earth then; NASA expects it to. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/67 "2025-11-13T14:46:56Z")
That’s really cool. I’ll add it to my mental note of “two light-seconds to the moon, eight light-minutes to the sun.” (Plus my favorite: “two million light years to the Andromeda Galaxy”). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/68 "2025-11-13T15:25:03Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > (Plus my favorite: “two million light years to the Andromeda Galaxy”). Actually, about 2.5 Mly to Andromeda Galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/69 "2025-11-13T15:28:51Z")
Nitpicker! 🙂 (all my figures were approximate). Point is, if an Andromedan is peering through a super-powerful telescope at Earth _right now_, they may or may not notice a few apes are oddly walking around East Africa on two feet… ---
**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:** [November 13, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/70 "2025-11-13T15:40:59Z")
So a _slightly_ longer trip. I’ll pack a couple more audio books. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/71 "2025-11-13T15:56:51Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Nitpicker! Hey, that’s what we do around here. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > (all my figures were approximate). But 2.5 rounds up to 3 as easily as it rounds down to 2. And does it really take that much more memory to remember the “and a half”? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/72 "2025-11-13T16:07:25Z")
True. I jumped the gun on that one. (The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are moving toward each other, so someday my approximation will be more accurate.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/73 "2025-11-13T17:44:55Z")
1,000 light years to Omicron-Persei. The numbers in Monty Python’s Galaxy Song are roughly accurate too, or were when it was written (or so I’ve heard). ---
**Author:** ![dimike333](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dimike333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dimike333)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/74 "2025-11-13T18:37:45Z")
Voyager running this long is still incredible. Losing a few instruments hurts, but keeping the core systems alive into the next decade is more than anyone expected. Even with reduced power, the data it sends back will keep teaching us things no other probe can reach right now. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640/75 "2026-04-19T12:06:04Z")
Low-Energy Charged Particles (LECP) experiment shut down on Voyager 1: > **[NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating - NASA...](https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/)** > > On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-begins-to-powerdown-voyagers-mission-will-continue-but-with-less-instruments/966640.md?page=3)