Comments by "H. de Jong" (@h.dejong2531) on "Voyager Probe Is Shutting Down After Shocking Discovery!" video.

  1. No, NASA isn't "shutting down" the Voyager missions. They're going to keep the spacecraft running for as long as possible. They'll monitor the available power (which slowly reduces, at about 4 W/year) and switch off instruments to stay within that limit. Occasionally, they find a way to keep the instruments running for longer than expected: two years ago the engineers switched off the heater for the cosmic-ray detector, which had been crucial in determining the heliopause transit. Everyone expected the instrument to die, but it kept working. This, and variability in the rate of decay of the RTG makes it difficult to predict exaxtly when the Voyagers will run out of power to run the last remaining instrument. The current best guess is 'about 2025'.
    1