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.
The radiation hazard still exists, it’s a long trip, easily 6 moths for a flyby, probably closer to 9-10 for an orbit transfer or atmospheric entry. You’re right, once they’re in Venus’s upper atmosphere, the combination of its thick atmosphere and induced magnetosphere would create radiation shielding once there.
There is a nice “zone” that’s about 15km tall 50km above the surface. Still have to deal with the carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid rain, and have to provide your own oxygen and nitrogen to mimic our atmosphere. Surface exploration is probably out of the question without some serious material science discoveries to withstand the temperature, pressure, and corrosion.