NEW YORK—NASA is switching off two science instruments on its long-running twin Voyager spacecraft to save power.
The space agency said Wednesday that an instrument on Voyager 2 that measures charged particles and cosmic rays will shut off later this month. Last week, NASA powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 designed to study cosmic rays.
The energy-saving moves were necessary to extend their missions, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.
The twin spacecraft launched in 1977 and are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn’s moons, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune….