Overview
- Voyager 1, which shut down its Low-energy Charged Particles instrument Friday, avoided an automatic undervoltage safing that could have shut systems off on its own.
- Mission controllers acted after a February 27 roll caused an unexpected power drop, raising the risk of a fault that would be slow and risky to recover due to 23-hour one-way communications.
- Two science instruments remain active that measure plasma waves and magnetic fields, and NASA says the shutdown should buy about a year of breathing room.
- Engineers plan to test a coordinated “Big Bang” power swap on Voyager 2 in May and June, then attempt it on Voyager 1 no sooner than July if it works.
- The spacecraft’s nuclear power source loses about four watts each year, so the team follows a preplanned order for shutting instruments down to keep the mission alive longer.