NASA Extends Voyager 2 by 1 Year With Power-Saving Overhaul at 21.4 Billion Kilometers
Updated
Updated · pttl.gr · Aug 14
NASA Extends Voyager 2 by 1 Year With Power-Saving Overhaul at 21.4 Billion Kilometers
3 articles · Updated · pttl.gr · Aug 14
Summary
Voyager 2 gained at least one more year of science operations after NASA completed its “Big Bang” power-saving overhaul on the 1977 probe.
About 4 watts of power vanish each year from the spacecraft’s radioisotope generators, and without the change NASA would have had to shut down another science instrument before the end of 2026.
The savings are meant to keep Voyager 2’s three remaining instruments running as it studies the interstellar environment from roughly 21.4 billion kilometers from Earth, with radio commands taking about 20 hours to arrive.
Its cameras will not return: NASA switched off the wide-angle and narrow-angle imaging system in 1989 after Neptune to conserve power, so the extension preserves data collection rather than photography.
That leaves Voyager 2’s archive—part of roughly 67,000 Voyager images and still the only close-range record of Uranus and Neptune—while NASA plans a similar power-saving step for Voyager 1.