With its power fading about four watts a year, Voyager 1 is being kept alive one switched-off instrument at a time, against a hard limit: let it get too cold and the fuel lines that feed its antenna-pointing thrusters could freeze.
Nearly half a century after it left Earth, Voyager 1 is being kept alive one switch at a time. Its power supply fades a little every year, so mission engineers at NASA have been turning off instrumen… [+5213 chars]