Engineers at NASA say they have successfully revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from our planet, in the nick of time before a planned communications blackout.
A side effect of upgrades to an Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, the communications pause could have occurred when the probe faced a critical issue — thruster failure — leaving the space agency without a way to save the historic mission. The new fix to the vehicle’s original roll thrusters, out of action since 2004, could help keep the veteran spacecraft operating until it’s able to contact home again next year.
Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, uses more than one set of thrusters to function properly. Primary thrusters carefully orient the spacecraft so it can keep its antenna pointed at Earth. This ensures that the probe can send back data it collects from its unique perspective 15.5 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space, as well as receive commands sent by the Voyager team.
What would be the benefit of going faster over being able to communicate with it?
How many years of fuel it has left depends fully upon how that fuel needs to be used to maintain orientation with Earth; there’s no specific answer.
To show alien invasion force where to come exterminate us???
I don’t know. Is there an ultimate destination?
It’s already completed its main mission. At this point, its mission is to observe and report. If the fuel was redirected to acceleration, that would effectively mean abandoning that mission in favor of… something.