Voyager probe may be prematurely terminated in Oct. due to NASA funding

[pmbryant]

This is a shameful decision, if true. The Voyager probes have been travelling so far and so long (nearly thirty years now) and are only now approaching the outer edges of the Solar System where the Sun's influence gives way to the interstellar medium. This would be a really bad time to shut them down, as is explained in the article below.

And there are several other currently-operating space probes that may be shut down as well.

What the hell has gone wrong at NASA the last couple years? (Rhetorical question.) First Hubble, now this.

http://www.space-travel.com/news/voyager1-05a.html

Interstellar Pioneers Facing Termination

Los Angeles (SPX) Mar 09, 2005

A little over 13 hours out from Sol, a veteran of the first space age - Voyager 1 - is working quietly in the depths of space as it travels away from our Sun at 17.163 kilometers per second. But now, NASA has told scientists working on these and other older missions that their missions may be terminated in October to save money, reports Nature.

The decision - which NASA officials say is not yet final - has angered space scientists, who are calling calling the moves penny-wise and pound-foolish, and that it is being done without a usual formal science review.

...

Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 are now more than 14 billion and 11 billion kilometres from Earth, respectively. Having visited all the outer planets except Pluto, they are on their final quest - to locate the unknown boundary between the Sun's domain and the realm where interstellar space begins.

Ground antennas are in regular contact with the spacecraft, which are expected to last until at least 2020 before giving out as their plutonium batteries decay. Under NASA's costing, the Voyagers currently need $4.2 million a year in funding for daily operation and data analysis.

Nature quoted Lennard Fisk, a University of Michigan space scientist who chairs the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board and is a former head of NASA space science, as saying the cuts were "an extremely foolish thing to do".

Voyager, he says, is entering one of the most interesting scientific phases of its long life as its particle detectors approach the edge of the Solar System.

...

[Oreo]

1. $4.2 million a year?

I'd bet Iraq costs that in 10 seconds

This would be ridiculously stupid. Even worse than Hubble.