Would it be worth to try and send out a faster probe out of our solar system?

[Kerbface]

We all know voyager is leaving or has left the solar system. In a few years it's going to stop sending information back though. I can't help but wonder if it might be a good idea to send something out of the solar system a lot faster. Put it on a much bigger rocket and get it going at several times the velocity with a longer lifespan for communication.

Bear in mind I am no proffessional so I know some things I'm saying might sound stupid to those more educated in the matter of space, but I wonder what we might be able to do if we made a probe like this. We could find out more about interstellar space and things like the oort cloud (though I'm sure that would take many years).

What of it? Is this just stupid and voyager has already given us all the really valuable info and there's nothing but unremarkable space beyond what it will find until you reach another star?

[Thaniel]

You mean something like this? http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php

Nasa´s New horizons mission, current speed is 14.98 km/s. It will "overtake" the voyager probes, eventualy.

[Kryten]

It won't, it's only faster because it's still a lot closer in than they are.

[Kerbface]

What rockets were voyager and New Horizons sent out on?

[Kryten]

Titan IIIE for Voyager and Atlas V 551 for New Horizons. The Voyagers got less initial boost, but gained more from gravity assists.

[Kerbface]

Well I still wonder about a probe sent out with gravity assists on a much larger rocket so it could accelerate afterwards as well (or before if that's more efficient) to explore in detail and for a very long time, what lies beyond the edge of the solar system.

[Canopus]

Instead of sending more Probes out of the System i would rather like to see some sent to Uranus or Neptune.

[Scotius]

Or asteroid belt/Near Earth Obiects. It would be good to know how much important stuff we began to look for really is there.

[metaphor]

A solar sail using almost current technology could go into interstellar space at 30 AU/year or 140 km/s, which is about 10 times the speed of Voyager. It would still take 2000 years to get one light-year away (Oort cloud) so it's not very practical for that.

[Holo]

Yeah. It's shocking how little we actually know about the outer solar system.

[ShachonianX]

For all you fellow geeks, you realize that New Horizons is going to Pluto first, then exit the solar system (maybe).

[Stochasty]

Here's the problem with sending a craft out of the solar system: with current propulsion technologies, any craft that we could send today would take so long to arrive that newer, faster craft relying on future technologies would have ample time to pass it up. As things stand technologically, the fastest route to Alpha Centauri right now is to stay put.

[Nuke]

its not really an issue with propulsion, the power systems will fail eventually and render communication impossible. solar panels dont cut it that far out, and rtgs die out.

really dont think we need to build brpobes built specifically for leaving the system. pretty much every time you do a flyby of an object in the distant part of the solar system, you send the probe out of the system, and so those probes get secondary and tertiary objectives.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Nuke