In an effort to conserve power, NASA has deactivated another scientific instrument on the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The space agency announced on Tuesday that Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument, which was designed to measure the flow of charged atoms, was turned off in late September to ensure that the spacecraft can continue its mission into the 2030s.
After exploring the gas giant planets in the 1980s, NASA deactivated a set of instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Both spacecraft are currently in interstellar space. The plasma instrument on Voyager 1 ceased functioning years ago and was officially shut down in 2007.
Despite the deactivation of the plasma science instrument, Voyager 2 still has four remaining instruments that will continue to gather data on magnetic fields and particles. Its primary objective is to study the regions of space beyond the sun’s protective bubble.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 holds the distinction of being the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. It is currently more than 12 billion miles away from Earth, while Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away.
By Adithi Ramakrishnan
