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by everdev 3126 days ago
They say these new thrusters will extend Voyager's lifespan by 2-3 years.

Just curious but does anyone know it's mission in interstellar space? Is it more than just a fun experiment at this point?

3 comments

Both Voyagers are still collecting magnetic/plasma field and radiation data (only Voyager 1 is in interstellar space, Voyager 2 hasn't made it yet). Mostly they are measuring the outer edges of the Sun's magnetosphere as it interacts with interstellar space, and it's a dynamic phenomenon so the data is actually more interesting than you might imagine. Several research papers a year continue to come out of the missions.
Radiolab did a great summary of this just a couple of months ago: http://www.radiolab.org/story/sun-dont-shine/ You can skip the parts about the time capsule if you want.

tl;dr: it's not clear what defines the edge of the solar system, there's interesting reasons to want to know where it is, and voyager taught us a lot about it.

42
To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no machine has gone before.
V'Ger will come back.
aren't they on hyperbolic trajectories?