NASA’s ‘Big Bang’ fix extends Voyager 2’s mission by at least a year

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have successfully implemented a power-saving maneuver on Voyager 2 that will keep the 49-year-old probe's three remaining science instruments operating for at least another year, the agency announced on August 4.livescience+1

The procedure, nicknamed the "Big Bang," involved a simultaneous and irreversible swap of high-power heating devices for lower-power alternatives on July 9. Engineers turned off two dedicated heaters and a digital tape recorder that had been kept running solely for its residual warmth, replacing them with devices that draw less power while maintaining enough heat to prevent the spacecraft's fuel lines from freezing in interstellar space.cnn+1

A Calculated Gamble Across Billions of Miles

The stakes of the maneuver were considerable. With command signals taking nearly 20 hours to reach Voyager 2 and another 20 hours for a response, engineers had to ensure that every element of the swap would work from the very first moment. If temperatures dropped too low, the spacecraft's propellant lines could freeze, causing it to lose the ability to point its antenna toward Earth — effectively ending the mission.cnn

"This was a team effort, the culmination of a year of work, with almost every team member contributing," said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager's mission manager at JPL. "Each of us love these spacecraft, and give generously of our time off-hours and weekends, so the feeling of realizing that we had extended the life of the spacecraft and science return by 2 years or more was fulfillment and delight."cnn

The three instruments preserved by the fix are the Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer, the Plasma Wave Subsystem, and the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, the last of which had been scheduled for shutdown before the end of 2026.gadgetreview

Voyager 1 Is Next

Attention now turns to Voyager 1, which is in worse condition than its twin. An unexpected power drop during a February maneuver forced engineers to shut down its Low-energy Charged Particles instrument in April, leaving only two of its original 10 instruments operational.livescience+1

A successful power test was conducted on Voyager 1 at the end of July, with a thermal test expected at the end of August. If the Big Bang reconfiguration succeeds on Voyager 1, it could not only extend the mission but potentially allow engineers to restart the shuttered instrument.cnn

Voyager 1, now about 25.4 billion kilometers from Earth, will reach a milestone on November 18 when it becomes one full light-day away — meaning a one-way radio signal will take 24 hours to arrive. Both spacecraft are set to mark their 50th anniversaries in 2027.starlust+1