An artist's impression of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) After nearly half a century in space, the Voyager 1 spacecraft just shut down one of its last remaining science instruments in a desperate attempt to preserve power. NASA 's decision to turn off the instrument comes just ahead of a last-ditch "Big Bang" moment that mission managers hope will give the two Voyager probes an extra boost of life later this summer. On Friday (April 17), Voyager 1 was commanded to shut down the Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) experiment, an instrument that has looked at ions, electrons and cosmic rays surrounding the spacecraft for the past 49 years. The spacecraft launched in 1977, initially to survey Jupiter and Saturn, before its mission was extended again and again. In 2012, Voyager 1 officially crossed into interstellar space, becoming the first spacecraft to send data from outside the solar system . It remains the most distant spacecraft in history.…