NASA turns off Voyager 1 LEC to keep spacecraft running
NASA just turned off one of Voyager 1's science instruments, the low-energy charged particles experiment (LECP), to save power and help the legendary spacecraft keep running.
Even though it's been traveling since 1977 and is now over 15 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 is still sending back data from interstellar space.
Plutonium decay forces Voyager instrument shutdowns
Voyager 1 runs on a generator that loses a bit of power every year as its plutonium decays, so NASA has started shutting down some systems to avoid triggering automatic faults that could mess up the mission.
The LECP was the latest to go, but two instruments studying plasma waves and magnetic fields are still working.
Engineers are testing new ways to stretch out what little energy remains, starting with Voyager 2, to keep these iconic probes exploring space for as long as possible.