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NEW YORK (AP) — NASA is switching off two science instruments on its long-running twin Voyager spacecraft to save power.
The space agency said on March 5 an instrument on Voyager 2 that measures charged particles and cosmic rays will shut off later this month. NASA recently also powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 designed to study cosmic rays.
The energy-saving moves were necessary to extend their missions, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.
The twin spacecraft launched in 1977 and are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn’s moons, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.
Each spacecraft still has three instruments apiece to study the sun’s protective bubble and the swath of space beyond.
Voyager 1 is over 24.14 billion kilometers from Earth and Voyager 2 is over 20.92 billion kilometers away.
