{"id":846393,"date":"2026-08-05T01:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846393\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T01:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:18:09","slug":"nasa-engineers-help-prolong-voyager-2s-science-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846393\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2\u2019s Science Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"mfk43\">Nicknamed the \u201cBig Bang,\u201d the effort involved simultaneously turning off certain powered devices and substituting them with lower-power alternatives while ensuring the spacecraft remains warm enough to operate.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9qnkn\">The Voyagers get their power from <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/planetary-science\/programs\/radioisotope-power-systems\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">radioisotope thermoelectric generators<\/a>, devices that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. Due to the plutonium supply continually depleting, both probes lose about 4 watts of power each year. After almost a half-century since launch, the spacecraft power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off non-essential devices and systems. The savings from the Big Bang should provide power to keep its three instruments operating for at least an extra year.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"la6t\"><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/blogs\/voyager\/2026\/08\/04\/nasa-engineers-help-prolong-voyager-2s-science-mission\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicknamed the \u201cBig Bang,\u201d the effort involved simultaneously turning off certain powered devices and substituting them with lower-power&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-846393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}