Forum Index > Full Moon Saloon > Beginning of the end for Voyagers
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
Faster than light
PostThu Jun 16, 2022 6:46 pm 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/record-breaking-voyager-spacecraft-begin-to-power-down/ Voyager 2 now has five remaining functioning instruments, and Voyager 1 has four. All are powered by a device that converts heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity. But with the power output decreasing by about four watts a year, NASA has been forced into triage mode. Two years ago the mission's engineers turned off the heater for the cosmic-ray detector, which had been crucial in determining the heliopause transit. Everyone expected the instrument to die. “The temperature dropped like 60 or 70 degrees C, well outside any tested operating limits,” Spilker says, “and the instrument kept working. It was incredible.” The last two Voyager instruments to turn off will probably be a magnetometer and the plasma science instrument. They are contained in the body of the spacecraft, where they are warmed by heat emitted from computers. The other instruments are suspended on a 43-foot-long fiberglass boom. “And so when you turn the heaters off,” Dodd says, “those instruments get very, very cold.” How much longer might the Voyagers last? “If everything goes really well, maybe we can get the missions extended into the 2030s,” Spilker says. “It just depends on the power. That's the limiting point.”

Anne Elk  Matt
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Jumble Jowls
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PostSat Jun 18, 2022 6:09 pm 
The Voyagers are fascinating. We are very lucky that they've continued operating as long as they have. Way beyond initial expectations. At least Voyagers' instruments remained active long enough to tell us when they passed heliopause and entered interstellar space. That was truly a quantum leap for humanity.
I can't help but wonder if an intelligent species will ever come across these craft and our messages.

Anne Elk, Cyclopath
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Forum Index > Full Moon Saloon > Beginning of the end for Voyagers
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