Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, May 3 (Xinhua) Voyager 2 is one of the greatest scientific instruments in human history. It is not only the only probe that has visited Uranus and Neptune, but also the second probe to cross the boundaries of the solar system into interstellar space. However, the veteran, who launched in 1977, faced an energy crisis, and in order to continue to return valuable scientific data, the project team had to make a difficult decision: turn off a voltage regulator that protects the instrument from voltage fluctuations.

Voyager 2 is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) that use heat from the decay of plutonium-238 to convert it into electricity. Due to the half-life of plutonium-238 is 88 years, much of the plutonium has decayed, and the 470 watts of electricity at the launch of Voyager 2 has been reduced by about 30%. To save energy, NASA has gradually shut down heaters, main thrusters and other systems that are no longer needed on Voyager 2, but the process cannot go on indefinitely. At least one scientific instrument is expected to be shut down this year, but Voyager 2 project scientist Dr. Spielke and her team have found a trick: you can first turn off a voltage regulator that provides a stable voltage to the instrument.

Turning off the voltage regulator poses a risk to all five scientific instruments, but Dr Spielke thinks it is more worthwhile than shutting down one of the scientific instruments. "the farther away the scientific data returned by travelers is, the more valuable it is, so we must be interested in keeping as many scientific instruments running as possible." Dr. Spielke said in a statement. After several weeks of testing, the operator decided to turn off the voltage regulator permanently.

This operation will enable Voyager 2 to keep all its scientific instruments in operation until 2026, and unless there are other ways to figure it out, it will face the choice of which instrument to turn off by 2026. Voyager 1 needs less electricity than Voyager 2 because one of its instruments failed at an early stage. If turning off the voltage regulator works for Voyager 2, the same measure may be taken for Voyager 1 next year.

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