The upload wasn't simple: The update had to travel 13 billion miles through deep space. When it reached its destination at NASA's Voyager 2, it went to work, deactivating some of the probe's higher-powered scientific instruments and substituting methods that consume less power. NASA said in a statement that conserving power means Voyager 2's instruments can continue operating for another year, if not longer. The probe has been on the job since its launch in 1977. NASA estimates that Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, now have about two-thirds of their original reserves of power which is drawn from radioisotope thermoelectric generators.
The software update mission, which NASA calls "Big Bang," isn't quite over yet. Voyager 1 is up next, and it's even farther away from Earth. In fact, in November it will have traveled the distance of one light-day. That means the update will need to travel 16 billion miles, or 26 billion kilometres, and hopefully won't need on-site tech support.
