Engineers are confident that shutting down the LECP will give Voyager 1 about a year of breathing room. They are using the time to finalize a more ambitious energy-saving fix for both Voyagers they call β€œthe Big Bang,” which is designed to further extend Voyager operations. The idea is to swap out a group of powered devices all at once β€” hence the nickname β€” turning some things off and replacing them with lower-power alternatives to keep the spacecraft warm enough to continue gathering science data.

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[–] 81 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Check out AMSAT-OSCAR 7 -- Closer to home, but launched in 1974, and still waking up when there's sun to operate. It's the oldest "operational" satellite still up there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMSAT-OSCAR_7

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    AMSAT = Amateur Satellite! Holy shit. Amateur, my ass.

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