After 42 years and nearly 20 billion kilometers each on the meter, the tireless Voyager 1 and 2 probes are coming to an end because of a year-on-year decrease in energy production. NASA has chosen to perform some tricky maneuvers to continue the adventure and win some precious years!
Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 probes have long achieved their scientific objectives by flying over planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, but also their satellites, like Europe, Titan, Io, Callisto, Ganymede, And so on. Nevertheless, this program is certainly the most prolific in the history of space exploration is not quite finished!
Delicate but judicious choices
Both parts in different directions, the Voyager probes are now several tens of billions of kilometers away from our dear Earth and are the first human-designed craft to swim beyond the heliopause, in the middle of interstellar space.
At the edge of space, some of the instruments of these probes that have marked history still return data to the Earth as part of their mission VIM ( Voyager Interstellar Mission ), valuable information and a great rarity.
Now 42 years old, the Voyager 1 and 2 probes are facing an inevitable drop in their energy production via their three thermoelectric radioisotope generators, a system that can produce energy through the heat emitted by the decay. radioactive plutonium 238. To extend the lifespan of its probes for a few years, NASA is forced to make difficult decisions about which equipment should be disabled or not, to save energy.
In its statement, the space agency explains: " Each spacecraft produces about 4 watts less electricity each year. This means that generators produce about 40% less than when they have launched nearly 42 years ago, limiting the number of systems that can remain active. "
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| Some details about the Voyager 1 & 2 probes dated July 15th, 2019 © NASA |
Voyager probes confronted with galactic cold
Thus, the scientific team and the program managers decided recently to deactivate several Voyager 2 instruments, the latest being the heating device of the Cosmic Ray Subsytem (CRS).
At present, this instrument continues to send data, but perhaps more for a long time since it is no longer warmed against the galactic cold. NASA says it is currently at -14 ° C, which is still far from the -45 ° C it was subjected to in a series of tests before launch. The US Space Agency reminds us that other instruments of Voyagerhave known far more extreme temperatures, this was the case Voyager spectrometer 1, which continued to operate despite a temperature of -79 ° C.
Former Program Manager Edward Stone, pictured with a scale model of Voyager 1 above, explains that " every day is a day of discovery " given the regions of space that these two machines go up. A fact that simply explains why NASA is so keen to extend their life.
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