Amazing that the solar powered spacecrafts are still operating. Wonder if they still send signals and probably takes several minutes for the signal to reach earth if so. I think the light from Sun takes 9 minutes to reach earth.
The Voyagers are nuclear powered craft. Where they are now, the sun is so far away that it only appears as a slightly brighter star than the rest.
It’s powered by Plutonium, And the signal flight time is about 17 hours.
Err, pretty sure they’re nuclear, and the signal takes about 19 hours.
“Amazing that the solar powered spacecrafts are still operating.”
I’m pretty sure that these spacecraft are powered by plutonium.
All deep space probes are thermonuclear battery powered.
Plutonium as a heat source and peltie effect thermocouples to generate a voltage and current accross the heat of the plutonim and cold of space.
I think it's about the size of a roll of paper towels. It is located on the end of the boom to keep it's particle emissions out of the space probes sensors.