Credit: Flickr NASA has made the decision to deactivate one of the scientific instruments on Voyager 2, a spacecraft launched into space on August 20, 1977. This measure is aimed at ensuring the continued operation of the spacecraft as its power sources diminish. Voyager 2 is currently journeying through space, approximately 13 billion miles away from Earth.

The official announcement from NASA states that on September 26, engineers instructed Voyager 2 to power down its plasma science instrument. The command was transmitted via NASA's Deep Space Network, taking 19 hours to reach the spacecraft, with an additional 19 hours for the return signal to Earth. Mission engineers are closely monitoring the situation to confirm that the shutdown of Voyager 2's instrument was carried out smoothly and that the probe is functioning normally.

The Plasma Science (PLS) experiment on Voyager 2 was used to study changes in solar winds. This experiment involved four plasma detectors designed to gather data on the flow of ions and electrons emanating from the sun as solar wind throughout the solar system. Despite the dwindling power supply, NASA expects Voyager 2 to continue operating with at least one active scientific instrument until the 2030s.

Over the past 47 years, NASA has periodically deactivated several scientific instruments on Voyager 2 as it utilizes its supply of plutonium. To date, six of the spacecraft's original ten instruments have been turned off, with the plasma science instrument being the seventh in line. Voyager 2 is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators that convert plutonium into electricity to operate.Decomposing plutonium to generate electricity, Voyager 2 exited the solar system on November 5, 2018, becoming the first man-made spacecraft in interstellar space beyond the heliosphere. Efforts were made to postpone the shutdown of any experiment for as long as possible due to the unique data collected by the twin probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the only active probes currently in operation. NASA's recent decision to power down Voyager 2's plasma science instrument is part of a strategy to preserve the spacecraft's functionality as its power source diminishes. Despite this adjustment, Voyager 2 is still operational and will continue to gather valuable information from deep space, potentially until the 2030s. This ongoing mission offers a rare insight into interstellar space, even nearly five decades after its launch.