But to be clear this is not a sad story -- this is one of. . . scientific triumph.
The identical pair of nuke-powered probes have now run amazingly well, for nearly a half century -- and are sailing interstellar space. . . long past the rated capacity of the parts aboard. Here's the latest, on the Voyager 2's power conservation efforts:
. . .Voyager 2 launched into space on Aug. 20, 1977 and left the solar system on Nov. 5, 2018. It is currently 12.8 billion miles (20.5 billion kilometers) from Earth and is using four science instruments to study space beyond the heliosphere, the sun's bubble of influence around the solar system. NASA thinks that Voyager 2 has enough power to keep running one science instrument into the 2030s, but doing that requires selecting which of its other instruments need to be turned off.
Mission specialists have tried to delay the instrument shutdown until now because Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 are the only two active probes humanity has in interstellar space, making any data they gather unique. Thus far, six of the spacecraft's initial 10 instruments have been deactivated. Now, losing the seventh has become unavoidable, and the spacecraft's plasma science instrument drew the short straw. On Sept. 26, engineers gave the command to turn off the instrument. . . .
The plasma science instrument consists of four "cups" collecting information on the amount of plasma, a fluid of charged particles, flowing past Voyager 2 and the direction of this flow. Three cups are angled toward the sun, monitoring charged particles in the solar wind while within the heliosphere. A fourth cup is angled away from the others to observe plasma in planetary magnetic fields and interstellar space. . . .
The cold night may be. . . approaching, upon which she falls silent and dark, forever. . . but that night will not be. . . tonight. And, not before November 4, 2029, we confidently predict. Smile.
नमस्ते
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