Notes ·
Voyager 2 Was Built to Last Five Years. It Is About to Turn 49.
NASA engineers have found another way to extend the life of Voyager 2, allowing its three remaining scientific instruments to keep operating for at least another year.
That would be impressive for any spacecraft.
Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977. It was originally engineered for a five-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn. Instead, NASA extended its journey to Uranus and Neptune, stretching the planetary mission to 12 years. Then it just kept going.
Voyager 2 is now nearly 49 years old, roughly ten times its original design life.
It remains the only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus and Neptune, entered interstellar space in 2018 and holds the record as the longest continuously operating spacecraft.
Its biggest problem now is electricity. Voyager's plutonium-powered radioisotope generator loses about four watts of output every year. NASA's latest solution, nicknamed the Big Bang, simultaneously shut down several non-science devices and replaced them with lower-power alternatives while keeping the spacecraft warm enough to operate.
Without the change, NASA expected to shut down another Voyager 2 science instrument before the end of this year. Now all three can continue operating for at least another year.
I find the longevity of Voyager almost difficult to comprehend.
Engineers built something in the 1970s for a five-year mission, sent it billions of miles away where nobody can repair it, repeatedly reprogrammed and adapted it from Earth, and nearly half a century later it is still returning scientific measurements from interstellar space.
NASA has described Voyager as its longest-lived mission and its continuing operation as an unprecedented achievement. I think that description is deserved.
Every additional year now feels like bonus time with one of humanity's greatest machines.