Maybe this has been laid out elsewhere, but exactly what "science" is Voyager 1 doing at this point? It's taking "readings" of things that may simply help us to get some picture of where we live... but what value does it truly have?
This is a soft value, but I’m glad for every bit of Voyager news that comes out. I find it personally inspiring, think that’s probably true for others, and I’ll take as a small win anything that tends to inspire people about science (or STEM more generally).
In October 2020, astronomers reported a significant unexpected increase in density in the space beyond the Solar System as detected by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. According to the researchers, this implies that "the density gradient is a large-scale feature of the VLISM (very local interstellar medium) in the general direction of the heliospheric nose".[89][90]
In May 2021, NASA reported on the continuous measurement, for the first time, of the density of material in interstellar space and, as well, the detection of interstellar sounds for the first time.[91]
Other taking a picture of where we live it is studying the boundary of our solar system (heliopause).
We can't know what value of the readings will have in the future of the science being studying. The studies will end in 2025 when it won't be able to power any instrument.
We can still track the position and speed. Any deviations from theoretical models would be interesting. Non deviations are also useful, although less interesting.
