Voyager spacecraft will eventually suffer RTG power depletion ending all telemetry transmissions
the verdict
CONTESTED
contested - the weight sits with the supporting side
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
2 sources for · 0 against
NASA documentation notes that the Voyager spacecraft use radioisotope thermoelectric generators for electrical energy, but the listed sources do not establish that they will eventually suffer complete power depletion ending all telemetry transmissions.
ark where the Voyagers are now. While you could still see some brighter stars and some of the planets with the cameras, you can actually see these stars and planets better with amateur telescopes on Earth.
What instruments on the spacecraft are still working and what have been turned off?
View an updated list of the status of Voyager instruments: Mission Status .
How long can Voyager 1 and 2 continue to function?
Editor's note: Both Voyagers were still functioning in April 2026.
The radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) on each spacecraft puts out 4 watts less each year. Because of this diminishing electrical power, the Voyager team has had to prioritize which instruments to keep on and which to turn off. Heaters and other systems have also been turned off one by one as part of power management.
The Voyager team has chosen to keep operating the instruments that are the most likely to send back key data about the heliosphere and interstellar space — the fields and particles instruments. Engineers expect to begin turning off fields and particles science instruments one by one, starting in 2020 for Voyager 2. Voyager 2 will have to start turning science instruments off sooner because it is currently operating one more instrument than Voyager 1. Engineers expect each spacecraft to continue operating at least one science instrument until around 2025.
Even if science data won't likely be collected at some point, engineering data could continue to be returned for several more years. The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.
Where are Voyager 1 and 2 today?
Unable to render the provided source Use the search function to find the current positions of all five spacecraft on an interstellar trajectory: Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Unable to render the provided source Use Eyes
The interception and retention of 238Pu deposition by orange trees. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) transform the heat produced during the alpha decay of 238Pu into electrical energy for use by deep-space probes, such as the Voyager spacecraft, which have returned images and other data from Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Future missions involving RTGs may be launched aboard the space shuttle, and there is a remote possibility that an explosion of liquid-hydrogen and liquid-oxygen fuel could rupture the RTGs and disperse 238Pu into the atmosphere over central Florida. Research was performed to determine the potential transport to man of atmospherically dispersed Pu via contaminated orange fruits. The results indicate that the major contamination of oranges would result from the interception and retention of 238Pu deposition by fruits. The resulting surface contamination could enter human food chains through transfer to internal tissues during peeling or in the reconstituted juices and flavorings made from orange skins.
Everything we examined (2)
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