NASA has successfully extended the science mission of the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The operation, nicknamed «Big Bang», involved simultaneously turning off certain energy-intensive devices and replacing them with lower-power alternatives, while ensuring the spacecraft remained warm enough to operate. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory implemented this strategy to conserve power. Since 2024, the dwindling power supply (from radioisotope thermoelectric generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity) has forced the mission to turn off some science instruments. Without the «Big Bang» maneuver, the mission would have had to turn off another instrument on Voyager 2 before the end of 2026. The savings should provide power to keep three of its science instruments operating for at least an extra year. The mission team plans to perform a similar swap on Voyager 1, which is farther from Earth than Voyager 2.
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