Keeping Voyager Alive: NASA’s Project Scientist Faces Painful Choices as the Iconic Mission Nears Its End

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We got to Neptune, and then we thought, “well, maybe it’s just another 10 [astronomical units] or so, a little bit further, a little bit further.” And so every time we got a little bit further, the modelers would go back, scratch their heads and say, “ah, it could be a little bit more, a little bit farther away,” and so on and on that continued, until finally, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012.

As we get closer to the end of the mission, for me personally, it’s kind of like wrapping up my career in a way—because I’ll probably retire once the Voyager mission ends.

One of the questions of the Voyager mission is, how far does the Sun’s influence continue into interstellar space?

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Article Details

Author / Journalist: Passant Rabie

Category: Technology

Markets: United States

Topics: Voyager 1 NASA Voyager 2

Source Website Secure: Yes (HTTPS)

News Sentiment: Neutral

Fact Checked: Legitimate

Article Type: News Report

Published On: 2025-04-05 @ 10:00:55 (20 hours ago)

News Timezone: GMT -5:00

News Source URL: gizmodo.com

Language: English

Article Length: 2839 words

Reading Time: 16 minutes read

Sentences: 134 lines

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Copyright Owner: © Gizmodo

News ID: 27599604

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