Scientists at NASA found a way to power of selected equipment while still maintaining power to other necessary equipment on Voyager 2 to extend it's life another year. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 is about 21.35 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) away from Earth. For comparison, Voyager 1 (launched about a week apart from Voyager 2), is about 25.40 billion kilometers (16 billion miles) from Earth.

We especially like the Voyager probes because they are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Due to the plutonium supply continually depleting, both probes lose about 4 watts of power each year. For more on the types of radioisotope batteries, we encourage you to visit our Gopher server.

The mission team plans to perform the same swap on Voyager 1, which is farther from Earth than Voyager 2, and to complete the effort in the coming months.