Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP<\/a>. The nuclear-powered spacecraft is running low on power, and turning off the LECP is considered the best way to keep humanity\u2019s first interstellar explorer going.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Interstellar-Spacecraft-Voyager1.png\")
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The low energy charged particle instrument. \u2014 NASA.<\/p>\n
The LECP has been operating almost without interruption since Voyager 1 launched in 1977 \u2014 almost 49 years. It measures low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from our solar system and galaxy. The instrument has provided critical data about the structure of the interstellar medium, detecting pressure fronts and regions of varying particle density in the space beyond our heliosphere. The twin Voyagers are the only spacecraft that are far enough from Earth to provide this information.<\/p>\n
Like Voyager 2, Voyager 1 relies on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, a device that converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. Both probes lose about 4 watts of power each year. After almost a half-century in space, power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off heaters and instruments while making sure the spacecraft don\u2019t get so cold that their fuel lines freeze.<\/p>\n
During a routine, planned roll maneuver on Feb. 27, Voyager 1\u2019s power levels fell unexpectedly. Mission engineers knew any additional drop in power could trigger the spacecraft\u2019s undervoltage fault protection system, which would shut down components on its own to safeguard the probe, requiring recovery by the flight team \u2014 a lengthy process that carries its own risks.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Interstellar-Spacecraft-Voyager2.jpg\")
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This image shows the low-energy charged particle instrument before it was installed on one of NASA\u2019s Voyager spacecraft in 1977. The instrument includes a stepper motor that turns the platform on which the sensors are mounted, so that the field of view rotates through 360 degrees. This motor was tested for 500,000 steps, enough to reach the orbit of Saturn, and has now completed over 6 million steps. The old-fashioned capacitor bank underneath the motor stores energy needed to provide a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds. \u2014 NASA<\/p>\n
The Voyager team needed to act first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile shutting down a science instrument is not anybody\u2019s preference, it is the best option available,\u201d said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at JPL. \u201cVoyager 1 still has two remaining operating science instruments \u2014 one that listens to plasma waves and one that measures magnetic fields. They are still working great, sending back data from a region of space no other human-made craft has ever explored. The team remains focused on keeping both Voyagers going for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Far-out plan<\/p>\n
The choice of which instrument to turn off next wasn\u2019t made in the heat of the moment. Years ago, the Voyager science and engineering teams sat down together and agreed on the order in which they would shut off parts of the spacecraft while ensuring the mission can continue to conduct its unique science. Of the 10 identical sets of instruments that each spacecraft carries, seven have been shut off so far. For Voyager 1, the LECP was next on that list. The team shut off the LECP on Voyager 2 in March 2025.<\/p>\n
Because Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) from Earth, the sequence of commands to shut down the instrument will take 23 or so hours to reach the spacecraft, and the shutdown process itself will take about three hours and 15 minutes to complete. One part of the LECP \u2014 a small motor that spins the sensor in a circle to scan in all directions \u2014 will remain on. It uses little power (0.5 watts), and keeping it running gives the team the best chance of being able to turn the instrument back on someday if they find extra power.<\/p>\n
What comes next<\/p>\n
Engineers are confident that shutting down the LECP will give Voyager 1 about a year of breathing room. They are using the time to finalize a more ambitious energy-saving fix for both Voyagers they call \u201cthe Big Bang,\u201d which is designed to further extend Voyager operations. The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once \u2014 hence the nickname \u2014 turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.<\/p>\n
The team will implement the Big Bang on Voyager 2 first, which has a little more power to spare and is closer to Earth, making it the safer test subject. Tests are planned for May and June 2026. If they go well, the team will attempt the same fix on Voyager 1 no sooner than July. If it works, there is even a chance that Voyager 1\u2019s LECP could be switched back on.<\/p>\n
Current position<\/a><\/p>\nNASA, Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Interstellar,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Location of LECP on Interstellar Spacecraft Voyager 1 On April 17, engineers at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-406157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Interstellar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Interstellar-Spacecraft-Voyager.png\")
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