Voyager 1 spent the last 47 years hurtling in a straight line away from Earth, exploring the deepest places in space that humans have ever ventured. However, NASA must be careful. Voyager 1 Management as the probe ages and gradually fails 15 billion miles from the nearest human. The most pressing problem is a failing rubber diaphragm inside the fuel tank.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory In 2002, it was discovered that the fuel tubes on one of Voyager 1’s thrusters were clogged. It was discovered that a disintegrating diaphragm had clogged the tubes with silicon dioxide. Fortunately, Voyager 1 had three thrusters: two attitude thrusters and one orbit-correction thruster. At that point, the space agency simply swapped one attitude thrust arm for the other.
By 2018, the fuel tubes of the swapped boosters were also clogged with silicon dioxide. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) then switched to the third thruster. It was only a matter of time before those tubes clogged, and that time came earlier this year. It’s worth noting that the blockage didn’t completely cut off the fuel flow; it just severely restricted it. NASA had planned to swap it back to an attitude thruster. However, the space agency couldn’t just push a button to make the change. NASA explained in a statement:
But the spacecraft’s longevity has brought new challenges, primarily related to power supplies and temperature. The mission shut down all non-essential onboard systems, including some heaters, on both spacecraft to conserve their dwindling power supplies, which are generated by decaying plutonium.
While those steps had the effect of reducing power, they also made the spacecraft colder, an effect compounded by the loss of other nonessential systems that generate heat. As a result, the thrust arms of the attitude thrusters had become cold, and turning them on in that state could damage them, rendering the thrusters unusable.
The engineers initially feared that they would have to turn off a scientific instrument on Voyager 1 to get enough power to turn on the heater for the thruster. The concern was that the device would not turn back on. The agency decided to just turn on the heater for an hour without turning off the corresponding device, and it worked! NASA announced that the thruster arm swap on August 27 was a success.
Voyager 1’s mission will continue as long as NASA can communicate with the probe. The push into interstellar space depends heavily on Voyager 1’s thrusters remaining active so it can orient itself to face our little blue dot. While Voyager 1 completed its tour of the outer Solar System in 1986, it has since ventured into interstellar space. If Voyager 1 can survive another three years, 50 years in business would be a huge achievement.
