Is the technology available and the time right for a 1000 a.u. spacecraft?
OK!
A Voyager spacecraft has already achieved the 100 a.u.
milestone.
But the Voyager spacecraft took almost 30 years to achieve
this feat...and only a few [outdated] instruments onboard are still
functioning.
Is the time and technology right to design, build and launch
a 1,000 a.u. [almost one light-week] spacecraft in the coming decade?
I think it would require a VASIMIR, or other cutting-edge
propulsion system...And it would require a generous
nuclear energy-generating system [perhaps a small reactor
instead of thermoelectric-generating plutonium].
Jacob Samorodin