I just saw a program about Voyager 1 on the Science Channel earlier this week.  Considering the technology of the day (1977) it was amazing that NASA scientists were able to build a probe that has done what Voyager has accomplished!  It had 68KB of memory aboard – far less than one of today’s smartphones!  It made fly-bys of all the large outer planets, using each to provide a slingshot effect to speed it on to the next planet, and it is estimated that it will be another 145 years before the alignment of the planets would again allow a similar trip to occur!  Just think;  today Voyager 1 is nearly 12 billion miles from earth and traveling at a speed of 38,000 miles per hour!  If it can hold together for another 40,000 years, it will fly by a star.  Remember, Voyager 1 was the subject of a Star Trek film because it was found by a alien race – this could happen, for the probe has pictures, languages, mathematics and other things that would/could inform another civilization of our existence.

Live long and prosper!