August 7, 2026
Pluto-nium? More like plotonium
NASA to keep its 48-year-old Voyager 2 probe running for yet another year
NASA squeezes one more year out of Voyager 2 — and the comments are losing it
TLDR: NASA has found a way to keep Voyager 2, a spacecraft launched in 1977 and now far beyond the planets, sending back science for another year by cutting power use. The comments swung from emotional awe at old-school engineers keeping it alive to savage mockery of any idea that modern AI should be allowed near it.
NASA has pulled off a last-minute life-support move for Voyager 2, the legendary space probe launched in 1977, by switching off non-essential gear so its last three science tools can keep working for at least one more year. In plain English: the spacecraft’s tiny nuclear power source is fading with age, and engineers are basically dimming the lights to keep the important stuff alive. For space fans, this is heroic. For the comment section, it’s also a full-on nostalgia meltdown.
The most jaw-dropping reaction came from a commenter claiming they once worked around NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and knew “the apparently last person who could encode the command sequences for Voyager 2.” That one line set the mood: half the crowd was awestruck that a 48-year-old spacecraft is still being steered by human know-how from another era, and half were suddenly terrified the mission depends on ancient institutional memory and maybe one guy with legendary keyboard powers.
Then came the mini flame war. One side recoiled at the idea of modern artificial intelligence touching the probe at all, with one commenter snapping that giving it to a so-called frontier model would “destroy it faster than you can blink.” Another mocked the whole suggestion even harder: “Hand our remote controlled flying nuclear powered… sensors over to matrix multiplication?” Ouch. Meanwhile, one calmer voice simply dropped a recommendation for the documentary It’s Quieter in the Twilight, which honestly feels like the classy answer to everyone else yelling in the airlock.
Key Points
- •NASA made a power-saving adjustment to Voyager 2, called the "Big Bang," to keep its three remaining science instruments running for at least another year.
- •Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, and each spacecraft loses about four watts of available power per year.
- •Engineers reduced Voyager 2’s power use by shutting off non-science devices and switching to lower-power alternatives for heating.
- •Both Voyager spacecraft have shut down two science instruments since 2024 due to declining power, and Voyager 2 now has only three of its original 10 instruments still operating.
- •Voyager 1 is expected to receive the same power adjustment soon; both spacecraft continue returning data from interstellar space after historic flybys of the outer planets.