Anonymousabout 4 hours ago
NASA shut down Voyager 1's Low-Energy Charged Particles instrument on April 17, 2026, leaving only two of the spacecraft's original ten science instruments still operating 15 billion miles from Earth. With the probe's nuclear power source now producing roughly 249 watts — about half its 1977 output — engineers are racing to implement a risky "Big Bang" power conservation maneuver that could extend the mission into the 2030s, even as budget cuts and the death of longtime project scientist Edward Stone raise questions about the institutional future of humanity's longest-running space mission.