NASA works to extend Voyager spacecraft mission again: 'Every day could be our last'

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Discovering Uranus

Uranus was discovered 241 years ago.

For nearly 50 years, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft have just kept swimming – or zooming through space, collecting data from interstellar space farther than any other mission. 

NASA is trying to keep both spacecraft alive once again by taking additional steps to conserve energy.

"Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before," Voyager project scientist Linda Spilker said in a NASA release. "That also means every day could be our last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation. So, we’re pulling out all the stops, doing what we can to make sure Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their trailblazing for the maximum time possible."

Artist concept showing NASA’s Voyager spacecraft against a backdrop of stars. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

(NASA)

Voyager 1 and 2 launched in 1977 on a grand tour of the solar system, making flybys of all our planets – just not Pluto, which was still classified as a planet at the time. 

VOYAGER 1 AND 2 CONTINUE OFFERING NEW MYSTERIES FROM INTERSTELLAR SPACE

After successfully completing each half of their tours, the spacecraft kept going (and going… and going) traveling in opposite directions out into the universe. According to NASA, Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth, and Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles. 

The space agency continues to receive data from both space probes through the Deep Space Network even years after they crossed the heliosphere, the protective bubble of solar wind considered the boundary of our solar system. 

Timeline of Voyager 2's travels

(NASA)

While both Voyager spacecraft started their mission launching from Florida with 10 science instruments, the spacecraft operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California continued to shut off instruments to conserve energy. After this month, only three instruments on each will remain operating. 

NASA announced engineers shut off the cosmic ray subsystem experiment on Voyager 1 on Feb. 25 and will shut off Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24. 

Both spacecraft rely on a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of decaying plutonium. As each year passes, they each lose about 4 watts of power. 

10-28-80 Washington: Image of Saturn taken by the Voyager Spacecraft at a distance of 21.1 million miles. Color enhanced by NASA

(Getty Images)

"The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible," Voyager Project Manager Suzanne Dodd said. "But electrical power is running low. 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."

Don’t count the mission out yet. Voyagers teams in California have had an action-packed few years and decades working through issues with both spacecraft, from communication outages to mis-pointing antennae.

NASA said with the latest energy conservation game plan, the Voyagers should have enough power to operate for another year before engineers shut off another instrument.