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Originally posted by zookeeper I am fortunate enough to remember when Voyager 1 was launched, looks like "vinyl" will be around forever, travelling through "the void". I once saw a DJ, long ago, that had 2 "prop" gold records with the male and female representaions, and the "starburst" on them (like Voyager's disc) very cool! Yes, I've not forgotten about these first, and who knows...possibly last for a long time, deep space probes. You would think in almost 30 years we would have become a "space bound" species, very disappointing ....well maybe in my next life

Well, Voyagers weren't really made as deep space probes, their primary mission was to explore the outer solar planets except for Pluto. Both they and the Pioneer 10 have operated well beyond their intended lifespan. As for the deep space probes, Pluto-Kuiper probe will be launched, probably in 2007.

But really, you can't travel to deep space with current propulsion methods. It took Voyagers 30 years to reach the edge of the solar system, but the radius of the solar system is some 100 times smaller than the distance to our nearest star. The only way to go deep space would be to find something better than the current chemical rockets, or even something better than what is being developed right now. Probably nothing less of nuclear/fusion/antimatter drives can do it, and those are still years away...well, except for nuclear and the Project Orion

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