Earth to Voyager II
What have you to say
About the things that you do
Earth to Voyager II
What have you found
That we'd be interested in
You've been going for 45 years now. That's impressive! However, you're getting old, so we had to turn off some of your instruments to preserve your power, and your life. We turned off the imaging subsurface system, since you won't be flying close enough to any object to get any pictures. In 1991, your photopolarimeter finally went kaput, after Voyager I's had gone 10 years prior. We turned off the ultraviolet spectrometer in 1998, the infrared interferometer in 2007, and the planetary radio astronomy in 2008. This leaves you with five functioning instruments, which is still one more than Voyager I. However, this means you're using more power than him. The only way to get power out there is through nuclear reactors, and well, those aren't replenishable. You're losing four watts/year of your limited supply. Voyager I will outlive you into the 2030s, but you might be able to squeak into 2026