system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do space probes such as Vogager 1 and Pioneer 10 operate for such a long period of time in space?

I know it's NASA magic, but how does NASA do this magic?!
gpt
The first thing to realize is that they don't really need much to keep functioning. They don't need fuel, because they can just keep on drifting forever. They need a little bit of power (mainly to maintain communication with Earth, and to keep their electronics warm enough to function. If there's enough to also power any of the scientific instruments on board, that's a nice bonus, but they really don't need that much. We have gargantuan antennae dishes on Earth to catch even very weak signals, so the probes don't need strong transmitters. If they can cough out a weak signal, we can easily do all the hard work on Earth to detect it.

These probes have radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) on board. That is basically a big box containing radioactive material, which can be used to generate power (and heat, which may help solve the heating problem). And while their output gradually declines, they can still last decades.

These specific probes don't use it, but solar power also works a surprisingly long time. It's always sunny in space, and there's no dust or dirt that might otherwise accumulate on your solar panels and prevent them from working.