Voyager 1 Dying? NASA Powers Down Science Instrument + Life Clues on Mars & Artemis Suit Crisis

About this episode

The episode discusses the power issues of Voyager 1, evidence of ancient life on Mars, and various space exploration updates.

Sponsor Link To check out our special NordVPN offer for Astronomy Daily listeners: Click Here Astronomy Daily — S05E90 | Wednesday, April 22, 2026 In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six stories spanning the fading power of humanity's most distant probe, fresh evidence for ancient life on Mars, a landmark black hole measurement, a SpaceX reusability milestone, a sobering assessment of the Artemis spacesuit programme, and tonight's moon and Jupiter conjunction. Story 1 — Voyager 1 Powers Down the LECP Instrument • NASA's JPL shut down Voyager 1's Low-energy Charged Particles experiment (LECP) on April 17, 2026, to conserve dwindling power. • The decision followed an unexpected power drop during a routine roll manoeuvre in late February that nearly triggered an automatic emergency shutdown. • Seven of Voyager 1's ten original instrument sets are now offline. Only the magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem remain active. • Engineers are developing 'the Big Bang' — a plan to swap older components with lower-power alternatives — to extend operations into the 2030s. Testing on Voyager 2 is planned for May/June 2026; Voyager 1 to follow no sooner than July. • Source: NASA JPL —…

People in this episode

Hosts: Anna, Avery

Topics covered

• Voyager 1
• Mars
• black hole measurement
• SpaceX
• Artemis spacesuit
• moon and Jupiter conjunction

Keywords

• Voyager 1
• Mars
• NASA
• Curiosity Rover
• Artemis
• black hole
• SpaceX
• moon conjunction
• Jupiter

Sponsors

NordVPN

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA, NASA JPL, Curiosity Rover, Nature Communications

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