NASA applies 'big bang' and gains at least two years for Voyager 2
NASA replaced three heaters on Voyager 2 with lower‑consumption equipment, keeping the probe warm and extending its interstellar mission by at least two years.
A risky, planned change by NASA's team — nicknamed the 'big bang' — managed to extend the Voyager 2 mission by at least two years by swapping heating devices for lower‑consumption alternatives.
Both Voyager probes, launched in 1977 and now more than 13 billion miles from Earth, have increasingly tight power margins. The intervention prevented the team from having to turn off another science instrument on Voyager 2 later this year.
What the team did inside Voyager 2
In July, controllers turned off two heaters and a digital recorder that were being kept on only for their residual heat. In their place, they activated two different, lower‑consumption heaters and a propulsion instrument that also produces residual heat.
The goal was to reduce electrical draw without letting the probe get too cold to operate. Commands were sent without immediate confirmation of success — the confirmation came only about 40 hours later because of the enormous distance.
Why the change matters and the next step
The Voyagers use radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which convert heat from plutonium decay into electricity, and lose about four watts per year as the fuel decays. By using more efficient equipment, the team managed to preserve scientific instruments: Voyager 2 still operates three instruments, and the maneuver prevented the shutdown of another before the end of the year.
Success with Voyager 2 led the team to plan to apply the same solution to Voyager 1, but engineers warn that, despite the identical design, the two probes may react differently — differences between them have already been observed.
The Voyagers completed their original mission to study the outer planets and are now exploring the limits of the Sun's bubble of influence. Meanwhile, another mission also headed toward the interstellar frontier, New Horizons, is much closer to Earth in comparison: about six billion miles.
According to mission leadership at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the adjustment was the result of a year of teamwork and returned valuable additional time to the mission to continue collecting data from space beyond the Sun's domain.
Source consulted: Smithsonian Magazine - Latest