<![CDATA[Voyager 1, still hanging on]]>

On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP. The nuclear-powered spacecraft is running low on power, and turning off the LECP is considered the best way to keep humanity’s first interstellar explorer going.

It's been up there for almost 49 years.

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/

]]>https://wtf.coffee-room.com/topic/3428/voyager-1-still-hanging-onRSS for NodeMon, 20 Apr 2026 19:47:31 GMTMon, 20 Apr 2026 15:23:14 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Voyager 1, still hanging on on Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:47:55 GMT]]>

The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once — hence the nickname — turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.

"... replacing them with lower-power alternatives...." Sounds odd to talk of replacing equipment on a machine that's 15 billion miles away. They must be alternatives that were built in to the original build?

]]>https://wtf.coffee-room.com/post/24157https://wtf.coffee-room.com/post/24157Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:47:55 GMT