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NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating (science.nasa.gov)
submitted 1 week ago by vogi@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Engineers are confident that shutting down the LECP will give Voyager 1 about a year of breathing room. They are using the time to finalize a more ambitious energy-saving fix for both Voyagers they call “the Big Bang,” which is designed to further extend Voyager operations. The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once — hence the nickname — turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.

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[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Also, the tech was "just right" then. Small and frugal enough to fit on a probe but still robust enough to survive more than a few years in space.

this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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