Glenn FleishmanApr 30, 2023

Missed the exciting news that the boffins at NASA JPL have figured out a way to use reserve power to keep using all the scientific instruments on board Voyager 2 for even longer. For a mission that only had a requirement to last until about 1982, job well done. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-will-do-more-science-with-new-power-strategy

Several years ago, I wrote extensively about space probes, including *six* articles about or involving the Voyager probes! https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2017/8/4/if-you-love-voyager-like-i-love-voyager

NASA’s Voyager Will Do More Science With New Power Strategy

The plan will keep Voyager 2’s science instruments turned on a few years longer than previously anticipated, enabling yet more revelations from interstellar space.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Show threadAntony Johnston
@glennf I love the Voyager program so much. Just knowing these machines are out there, inconceivably distant, still doing their thing, is amazing and inspiring.
Apr 30, 2023 at 6:14pmIvory for iOS
Show threadGlenn FleishmanApr 30, 2023
@antonyjohnston Indeed! It seems so implausible that we have a reach that far with such fragile objects. I honestly liked that part of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – the notion that Voyager was found and responsible for so much.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈May 1, 2023
@antonyjohnston @glennf it gives me genuine strength, knowing they are out there and what got them that far.