zlacker

>>belter+(OP)
Hope the re-calibration works. Would be a sad way to lose contact after all these years.

>>padjo+P3
True, but they only had enough power on-board for it to last until 2025 anyway, so it's already on its last legs.

>>midori+kc
The power needs are mainly for radio communications back home?

Or that includes navigation / propulsion / course corrections / reorientation also?

(There is not enough "solar power" that can be harvested at that distance I presume)

If we spread out the communications to be less frequent and say bring it down to essentially a heartbeat signal once a month ..would it prolong the service life. Mostly for emotional reasons at that point :)

>>albert+xd
The 'battery' in this case is an RTG, so the amount of power drops whether it is used or not.

>>whaleo+Ij
It might be possible to use the remaining electrical heaters as some kind of crude thermal battery (assuming they have any heaters still running, they already shut down the heaters for most of the scientific experiments).

Simply turn the heaters off before transmitting and keep any transmission periods short enough that the electronics don't get too cold.

JPL probably have a bunch of tricks like this ready for when power levels drop. That 2025 estimate is 10 years old and I'd be surprised if it's final.