NASA shuts off another Voyager 1 instrument as humanity’s most distant spacecraft prepares for risky ‘Big Bang’ maneuver to save power– www.livescience.com

After nearly half a century in space, the Voyager 1 spacecraft just shut down one of its last remaining science instruments in a desperate attempt to preserve power. NASA‘s decision to turn off the instrument comes just ahead of a last-ditch “Big Bang” moment that mission managers hope will give the two Voyager probes an extra boost of life later this summer.

On Friday (April 17), Voyager 1 was commanded to shut down the Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) experiment, an instrument that has looked at ions, electrons and cosmic rays surrounding the spacecraft for the past 49 years.

But now, Voyager 1 is running critically low on nuclear power, especially after a planned roll maneuver on Feb. 27 created an unexpected power drop.