NASA Shuts Down Voyager 1 Instrument as Probe Loses 4 Watts of Power a Year
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · May 24
NASA Shuts Down Voyager 1 Instrument as Probe Loses 4 Watts of Power a Year
2 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · May 24
Summary
April 2026 brought another step-down for Voyager 1: JPL engineers switched off the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, which had operated with few interruptions since the 1977 launch.
About 4 watts of power vanish each year from each Voyager as their plutonium generators decay, forcing NASA to follow a long-planned sequence for shutting instruments to keep the spacecraft transmitting.
Two instruments still return data from interstellar space—an area no other human-made craft has explored—but mission managers expect both Voyagers to fall silent sometime in the 2030s.
That approaching shutdown has renewed attention on the Golden Record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc carrying 115 images, 90 minutes of music and greetings in 55 languages.
Voyager 1 is not expected to near another planetary system for about 40,000 years, making interception unlikely even as the record itself could outlast the spacecraft by millennia.
As Voyager 1's power fades, can a risky 'Big Bang' maneuver on its twin bring its silenced instruments back to life?
With Voyager’s nuclear heart failing, is NASA's next-gen Mars mission truly ready to carry the torch of deep space exploration?
By silencing an instrument to save Voyager 1, what crucial secrets of interstellar space are we now missing forever?
Voyager 1 Nears 1 Light-Day from Earth: Power Challenges, Instrument Shutdowns, and the Future of Humanity’s Farthest Explorer
Overview
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft shut down its Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) instrument on April 17, 2026, as part of a carefully planned strategy by the Voyager science and engineering teams. This decision was driven by the spacecraft's steadily diminishing power supply, since both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 rely on radioisotope thermoelectric generators that lose about 4 watts of power each year. By meticulously planning the order of instrument shutdowns, the team aims to ensure the mission's longevity and continue gathering unique scientific data from interstellar space, even as available power continues to decline.