NEW YORK—NASA is deactivating two scientific instruments on its long-operating twin Voyager spacecraft to conserve power.
The space agency announced on Wednesday that an instrument on Voyager 2 used to measure charged particles and cosmic rays will be turned off later this month. Last week, NASA also powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 that was designed to study cosmic rays.
These energy-saving measures were deemed necessary to prolong the missions of the Voyagers, said Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a statement.
Launched in 1977, the twin spacecraft are currently situated in interstellar space—the vast region between stars. Voyager 1 made discoveries such as a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn’s moons, while Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune.
Despite the deactivation of two instruments, each spacecraft still retains three instruments to investigate the sun’s protective bubble and the expanse of space beyond.
Voyager 1 is positioned over 15 billion miles from Earth, while Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles away.
By Adithi Ramakrishnan
