Astronomy current events question: Voyager 1 at heliosheath

Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students are assigned to read online articles on current astronomy events, and take a short current events quiz during the first 10 minutes of lab. (This motivates students to show up promptly to lab, as the time cut-off for the quiz is strictly enforced!)

Jia-Rui Cook, "Voyager Seeks the Answer Blowin' in the Wind," March 8, 2011
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20110308.html

To prepare to gather data on the outer solar system's heliosheath, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft:
(A) used retrorockets to slow down to a complete stop.
(B) upgraded and rebooted its operating system.
(C) temporarily disconnected its nuclear power source.
(D) tested its gyroscopes to turn itself around.
(E) sped up to 1% of the speed of light.

Correct answer: (D)

Student responses
Sections 30678, 30679, 30680
(A) : 8 students
(B) : 6 students
(C) : 2 students
(D) : 31 students
(E) : 3 students