NASA engineers have successfully executed a critical power-saving procedure on the Voyager 2 spacecraft, allowing the veteran probe to keep its remaining science instruments operating for at least another year. Managed by the agency’s Live Science in Pasadena, California, the mission relies on an ingenious engineering hack nicknamed the “Big Bang.”
NASA Extends Voyager 2 Mission With Power-Saving Maneuver
Launched in 1977 alongside its twin, Voyager 1, the spacecraft were originally designed to take advantage of a rare planetary alignment to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Both probes have long since entered interstellar space, where they continue to transmit invaluable scientific data back to Earth.
The Dwindling Power Supply of Aging Nuclear Batteries
Both Voyager spacecraft are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are nuclear batteries that utilize the heat produced by the natural radioactive decay of plutonium. However, this power source diminishes over time as the plutonium isotope decays toward its half-life, causing each probe to lose approximately four watts of power every year.
Because spacecraft power margins have grown razor-thin, engineers have had to carefully manage energy consumption. The diminishing power supply has already forced mission operators to turn off two science instruments on each spacecraft since 2024. For Voyager 2, which initially launched with 10 instruments, only three remain active: the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, the Magnetometer, and the Plasma Wave Subsystem. Without intervention, Voyager 2 would have been forced to shut down another of these final three instruments.
Executing the Big Bang Maneuver
To avoid shutting down additional hardware, engineers at the Gizmodo devised the “Big Bang” strategy. The procedure involves selectively shutting off certain powered devices—such as two heaters and an old-school eight-track tape recorder used by the digital Data Tape Recorder system—while carefully switching on lower-power alternatives, including two different heating units and an onboard propulsion system.
According to Space, these switches save the probe almost 10 watts per year while keeping the spacecraft warm enough to operate in the frigid environment of interstellar space. Following careful testing in May and June, mission engineers confirmed the power transfer was successful.
This is the most important thing we’ve done on the Voyager spacecraft in decades,
Voyager mission manager and systems engineer Kareem Badaruddin told Gizmodo, adding that the test went remarkably smoothly.
Next Steps for Voyager 1
Voyager 2 was chosen for the initial test because it is in better health and closer to Earth than its sister probe. While Voyager 2 is located at approximately 142 astronomical units—or about 13.3 billion miles—away, Voyager 1 is even further out at roughly 15.9 billion miles from Earth.
Voyager 1 is currently operating with only two remaining science instruments after a unit was powered down in April. NASA now plans to apply the same “Big Bang” power-saving maneuver to Voyager 1 in the coming months to extend the operational life of its remaining instruments as long as possible. Signal communication with the distant probes is exceptionally slow, with a one-way radio journey taking nearly 24 hours.
Keep reading