It’s not 37 years of silence, it’s just 37 years since those particular thrusters have been used. Which is still amazing. The craft has been in contact with earth all along. Which is even more amazing. I just started my freshman year in college when it was launched, and now I’m contemplating retirement in a few years.
OH, then the article is not well written, I would say. It gave me the impression there had been silence since 1980. I don’t follow a lot of NASA stuff or I would have known better, obviously. Anyway, very cool. Yes, I think the item jumped out at me because I was just starting college that month. An exciting time, ha ha.....
It is amazing, I was 27 when Voyager was launched in 1977, now at 67 I am retired and it is still going!.
“Which is even more amazing. I just started my freshman year in college when it was launched, and now I’m contemplating retirement in a few years.”
Wow. Just think, you’ve lived 13 billions miles worth of spacecraft.
Where this thing is, there's no moisture, no change in temperature, no change in pressure, no bacteria, no oxygen - absolutely nothing which would cause rust or decay. They SHOULD work after 37 years!