An artist's conception of a Voyager craft journeying through deep space. Credit: Mark Garlick / Science Photo Library / Nuclear fuel lasts a long time. But not forever. "Mission engineers have taken steps to avoid turning off a science instrument for as long as possible because the science data collected by the twin Voyager probes is unique,

The plasma experiment had been gathering limited data. NASA expects the Voyager 2 spacecraft will continue operating with other experiments into the 2030s.