Originally Posted by robross

Were these probes designed with instruments to be used specifically when they got past, say the orbit of Pluto? Or have we just been using the normal NASA kung-fu and making use of instruments originally designed for other purposes?

Or to put it another way, was the extended data collection mission for these probes an after-thought, as in "Hey, as long as we're in the neighborhood...", or did they know when they were launched they'd be collecting data from them 30 years later?

Rob