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Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by retrac on Monday April 22, 2024 @07:10PM (#40125284)
The plutonium 238 decays according to a curve, and the thermocouples are degraded as well by heat and radiation according to a curve. So the power output drops rather predictably: "The radioisotope thermoelectric generator on each spacecraft puts out 4 watts less each year." [1]

The Voyagers will soon no longer have enough power to operate any of their instruments. They'll have enough power to continue operating the transmitter (which serves as a science experiment of its own) into the 2030s. The power of the signal will drop before the electronics and control brown out (if it works as designed), and it the signal might become too weak to detect before the probe completely stops operating. Such a fate befell Pioneer 11, who may yet still be warbling away at low power no longer pointed at Earth; its carrier was last detected in 2003.

[1] https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/

Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by wolverine876 on Monday April 22, 2024 @08:18PM (#40127110)
> [1] https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/

Also:

Even if science data won't likely be collected after 2025, engineering data could continue to be returned for several more years. The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.

That FAQ covers a lot of interesting ground (though it talks about 2020 in the future tense).

After Voyager 1 took its last image (the "Solar System Family Portrait" in 1990), the cameras were turned off to save power and memory ...

I didn't realize that was the last image.

... it is very dark where the Voyagers are now. While you could still see some brighter stars and some of the planets with the cameras, you can actually see these stars and planets better with amateur telescopes on Earth.

Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by xattt on Monday April 22, 2024 @09:44PM (#40127589)
> the cameras were turned off to save power and memory

Since it’s powered by an RTG, how does the power get “used up”? I assume that this refers to the available power budget at a given moment versus some sort of expendable power reserve.

Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by Yossarrian22 on Monday April 22, 2024 @11:18PM (#40128089)
Probably a physical relay to deal with parasitic power draw
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by xcv123 on Tuesday April 23, 2024 @12:48AM (#40128612)
Yes the power budget is decreasing as the generator output decreases over time.
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by 8bitsrule on Tuesday April 23, 2024 @03:07AM (#40129339)
It's the first question at the top of that ^ FAQ page. One of their comments is : "Mission managers removed the software from both spacecraft that controls the camera." Makes me wonder if that unused RAM came in handy lately!
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by wkat4242 on Tuesday April 23, 2024 @06:09PM (#40137951)
It's radioactive so the half-life has a serious effect. Its half-life is 87 years so it's not even used up one. I guess it wasn't really very overdimensioned. But it wasn't meant to last this long.
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by exitb on Tuesday April 23, 2024 @03:22AM (#40129429)
> The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036

It would be quite depressing if it was us failing to receive a fainter signal, rather than Voyager failing to send it.

Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by gpvos on Wednesday April 24, 2024 @05:45AM (#40142373)
I think the reverse would be more depressing. There will inevitably come a time when the signal will be indiscernible from the background noise.
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by wolverine876 on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @06:21PM (#40230329)
Is that strictly true? Doesn't it depend on the signal processing power of the receiver?
Re:NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to E... by dmurray on Tuesday April 23, 2024 @03:26AM (#40129445)
> the transmitter (which serves as a science experiment of its own) into the 2030s.

One of the longest-running scientific experiments, too. It's already about as old as the Queensland pitch drop experiment was when Voyager I was launched.